Helpless
by Eristoff-icE
Summary: Hermione feels helpless as Harry seems to walk into a trap where she is the bait. Can she prevent him from running towards his own death? First fic, take a peak if you feel like it... R&R if you please...
1. Looking back

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to it. I do own my imagination, however.

(Now, on to the story!)

It all happened three weeks before. For all she could remember, it was total chaos. Hogwarts falling to pieces, wild screams of horror and pain, bolts flying through the air from every direction, utter destruction everywhere. Death Eaters, Aurors, teachers and students alike lay down on the ground, most of them dead or unconscious. She almost died, but in the end managed to get out alive. Looking down towards the school grounds from the top of the Gryffindor tower as a light breeze engulfed her, she remembered everything, as clearly as if it happened just moments before.


	2. Unexpected reaction

Hogwarts turned into a battlefield as soon as Voldemort tried to take control of it. Knowing of Dumbledore's absence from the school he saw in this the perfect opportunity to strike a fatal blow to his opponents with a swift and smooth blitz-like attack. Little did he know, that was the kind of action Dumbledore had been waiting for, although not so soon after his revelation. Both sides were taken by surprise and what was supposed to be a clean wipeout turned into a ferocious battle with heavy casualties.

Hermione fought hard to concentrate, but being inside a building attacked by Lord Voldemort's followers didn't help much. She was jittery, anxious and all-out nervous. This was no regular duel with some nosy Slytherins. This was an unfair battle between Death Eaters and Hogwarts staff. Some aurors – sent by Dumbledore himself to watch out for anything suspicious – were also fighting along with teachers and students. Even Dobby was helping.

Pacing back and forth for what seemed to be days, Hermione tried to think what to do. Several tens of students were there in the Room of Requirement – which looked very different from when she had D.A lessons with Harry, almost like a bunker – seeming rather worried, not knowing anything from the battle. Most of them were from years 4 and under, for the rest had gone to help and shake off the attack.

It was quite a bad time for an attack on Hogwarts. Seemingly confident on his predictions about Voldemort's future actions, professor Dumbledore had assigned professor McGonagall to establish escape plans for the students in the event of an atack. McGonagall had asked Hermione to lead the students if that scenario would ever come to be. The only problem was that they had only started discussing escape routs two days before. Nothing had been decided and, now that professor McGonagall had gone to fight Voldemort's minions, Hermione had to decide for herself what the best course of action would be.

Her first impulse was to gather as many students from years 4 and under and take them to the Room of Requirement. They would be safe there for some time, at least until Hermione decided what to do next. Being relatively safe as no one would ever find them there, Hermione couldn't afford to risk her chances of being held in the castle in case Voldemort won. _Positive thinking, Hermione! Positive thinking! Voldemort's not going to win! Harry is! Harry is going to win! And he'll be back! And we'll all celebrate victory!_

Hermione's stomach jumped up and down at the bare thought of Harry. Sure he'd fought with Voldemort before and he knew how to take care of himself, but this time it was different. Only he could destroy Voldemort. Only he could bring peace to the torn-apart wizard world. But he could die. Voldemort grew stronger everyday and in no way it was going to be easy.

A stubborn tear strided down across Hermione's cheek as she halted to a stop, her back to everyone else. Harry could die, and with that half of her would die too. She found herself thinking what would happen if Harry died. She wouldn't stand to see him lifeless and still. She wouldn't bare to live another day.

_Wake up! This isn't helping! You've got to take these students out of here! Quick!_

Kicking herself mentally for thinking about Harry's possible death instead of concentrating herself on her task, Hermione shrugged her sad thoughts away and dismissed them to a deep and unknown part of her mind. Pacing back and forth again, and this time concentrating herself harder, a light suddenly flashed in her mind. "The Marauder's Map!" she screamed, causing some students to flinch in fear at her sudden yell. Almost instantly a piece of parchment appeared on the floor just in front of her, and she gladly recognized it as being the famous Marauder's Map Harry used to check whenever he needed to go somewhere without being caught.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good!" she said, tapping the map slightly with her wand. At once images started to show and Hermione unfolded the map. Little dots raced back and forth, and Hermione recognized some name tags. She had never seen so many in the same place. Some dots eventually disappeared and sadly she got the impression that it would be a sign of someone dying. Ignoring the urge to find the name tag with the name of Harry Potter, she traced the route from where she was to the secret passage Harry used to go to Hogsmeade. Seeing the coast clear she immediately urged everyone to follow her.

Hermione opened the door quietly so as to not make a single sound, and after checking no one was near, she ordered everyone to get out. She started running for the hallway in which the secret passage was located, checking with the Map every time they had to double a corner. After some minutes of franticly trying to run as quietly as possible, they finally got there. Tapping open the door to the passageway, she prodded everyone inside, looking over her back and checking the Map in case someone avoidable showed up.

Finally the last student disappeared into the dark passage, and Hermione was about to get inside when she took a final look at the Marauder's Map. Three name tags were now visible, not far away from their position. _Malfoy, Crabbe and Neville in the same spot? That spells trouble. _Telling all the other students to keep moving until they reached Hogsmeade and to keep together at all times, she closed the passage and headed towards the place where Neville, Draco and Crabbe were.

As expected, Neville was quite in an uncomfortable position. Laying face down on the floor and starting to sprout something that looked terribly like tentacles from his ears, he was being the target of Malfoy and Crabbe's hard laughs, although barely audible due to the constant magic blasts coming from the outside. She stopped short at the sight.

"Hermione!" cried out Neville, a hint of hope in his voice.

Malfoy and Crabbe, unaware of Hermione's presence turned around fast and pointed their wands in her direction.

"Granger" said Malfoy, his deep gray eyes lacking any emotion besides anger and hatred. "Nice of you to join us. We were just having a little fun with our good friend Logbottom" he gestured towards the miserable looking boy who still lay down under the pressure from Crabbe's foot.

Hermione looked at him defiantly. "Strange time to be having a party."

Malfoy grinned, ever so slightly. "I could kill you now, you know. I have my wand ready, the words are in my mind, and you have no way out" he said, enjoying the moment. "I have to admit it, mudblood, you always had the top of the situation. You were the best, the very best student at Hogwarts. And I despised you more with each passing day. Today I might say I despise you almost as much as I hate Potty boy."

She clenched her teeth and fought the sudden instinct to beat the hell out of him. She stood very still, all her muscles tense with the internal fight between her heart and her brain. Malfoy seemed to notice it, as he let out a mischievous smile. "Ooh… looks like I've hit a nerve right there" he said, seemingly interested in longing the suffering into a good amount of time. "Miss Know-it-all having a soft spot for Mr Celebrity… how touching" he added with false sweetness in his voice. "As far as I know he may already be dead."

Hermione could only think of the nastiest words to say. Merlin be damned, she just wanted to see Malfoy go down in the most horrible and pain-inflicting fashion, and she could only imagine herself doing it. _If you try to attack he'll kill you! Don't do anything rash! Wait and catch the little ferret off-guard! Wait! _

Malfoy went on with his speech about how Harry could already be dead. "The Dark Lord will not be defeated by anyone! Anyone! I sincerely don't know what got into your minds when you thought pot-head could beat him."

Crabbe laughed loud and Hermione thought it looked exactly like a big wild hog snoring.

Suddenly there was a big blast followed by a rain of shattered stone. All four of them were caught in the blast and thrown away several feet. Still shocked and out of herself, Hermione got up and could only see Crabbe laying in front of her, blood streaking from his forehead, starting to form a huge puddle of crimson liquid mixed with the dust that now made it impossible to see clearly beyond ten feet.

She held up a hand against the wall to help her be up straight and realized she was bleeding badly from a deep cut in her left arm. There were some other small bruises all over her, but she ignored the pain, looking instead for Neville. A big hole in the wall showed the clear moonless night, and it didn't help at all in her quest. At least the dust was setting down and she could almost see the end of the hall.

However, she didn't take five steps before the all too familiar voice spat from behind her "You're not going anywhere, you filthy mudblood! _Crucio_!"

Everything started distorting and the world started spinning in many directions at the same time. Falling to the ground, Hermione felt nothing except excruciating pain and heard no more than her screams of suffering. Squirming to make the pain go away she managed to hear Malfoy let out an evil laugh of triumph, but the magical punishment like a thousand knives punctuating her could only make her focus on the suffering itself. Malfoy laughed louder with each passing second, and Hermione thought she couldn't bare it any longer. She saw the light at the end of the tunnel quickly appearing and she tried to grab it. Dying was the only solution to stop the pain! To no avail, the light always ran away from her grab and she felt she was being held prisoner to the pain.

Malfoy smiled triumphantly. Dying would be too easy. She had to suffer.

Suddenly Hermione felt the pain lowering to a minimum and, turning back, realized Malfoy had picked up a big stone from the floor. Urging herself to ignore the pain that ran through her, she got up and saw that Malfoy stared at the red tinged stone. It was blood – Malfoy's blood.

"You are so going to regret this, Longbottom!" he hissed, the words dripping venom.

Neville shook with fear, almost sobbing as Draco looked up at him, ready to make him suffer. He started to pace backwards, tentatively, but Malfoy started trodding towards him, ignoring the crimson river of blood that flowed from his left temple. Suddenly Hermione felt her wand.

"_Expelliarmus!_" she yelled, watching with evil pleasure as Malfoy was sent flying ten feet.

Although Malfoy wasn't expecting the blow, he picked his wand and got up, rolling over to the side with incredible speed. The duels with Harry had made him stronger. He pointed it towards Hermione, who didn't expect such a quick reaction, and sent her flying too. Her wand escaped her hands and she clutched her head as it hit a huge stone column, almost immeadiately feeling the warmth of her own blood. Momentarily blind with the pain, she heard Malfoy walking decisively towards her.

"You have gone too far this time! Say your last prayers!" he shouted. Hermione tried to find her wand but it was fifteen feet away and Malfoy was already at range to strike her. She looked at him and froze. His eyes burned with twisted pleasure and Hermione felt she was as good as dead.

Malfoy stretched his arm and pointed his wand at her. She gulped, terrified for her life, praying for Neville to do something.

"_Avada_ ----"

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Malfoy suddenly froze and his eyes rolled in their sockets. With a heavy thud he fell to the ground, completely helpless.

He was dead.

Hermione didn't dare to move for some several agonizing moments. She was afraid that anything would make Malfoy stand up again, until she heard Neville's voice.

"Are you okay?" His voice trembled, but Hermione couldn't know if it was fear, shock or excitement. Maybe everything at once.

She still didn't dare to move for a couple more seconds, but finally answered "Yes" in a voice that didn't seem her own.

Draco Malfoy was dead. Crabbe was dead too. This information didn't seem to fit into her head for a few moments.

Dead. Permanently gone. Just moments ago she had wished for Draco's death in the worst kind of way, but now that the lifeless body lay down at her feet she didn't feel any happiness or comfort about it. She was indeed terrified.


	3. The other Malfoy

_Oh my God! There's two dead people here!_

_For Merlin's sake, Hermione, get a grip! It was either you or him!_

_I know, but he didn't have to get killed! Putting him unconscious would have done it too!_

_I think you have to thank Neville. He was the one to choose. He was the one who killed him. He was the one who saved you now._

_I know, but…_

_You're alive! That's what counts! Imagine if you died - you'd never see Harry again!_

Dismissing these thoughts for the sheer horror they represented, she got up and took a look at Neville. He shook from head to toe, but still had his wand pointed towards Draco. "It's okay, Neville. I think he's pretty much dead" she said, still bewildered.

Neville finally let himself loosen up and sat heavily on the ground, his mouth still agape. "I… I killed him" he said, his lips trembling, making it hard to understand what he was saying. "I killed him."

Hermione sat beside him, feeling a bit more relieved. "No, Neville, you didn't kill him."

Neville looked at her, his shock suddenly replaced with a mix of fear and confusion. "I didn't? I-I didn't kill him?"

For the first time that day, Hermione smiled. "No, Neville. You saved me."

Neville seemed to consider her words carefully and it took him some time to react, but he finally let out something Hermione took as a smile.

"Thank you, Neville. Thank you very much" she said truthfully. "You truly have the Gryffindor spirit."

Neville relaxed a little bit and started to breathe at a slower rate.

Suddenly, Hermione remembered that she still had a task to accomplish. With a jolt she jumped to her feet, startling Neville. "Come, Neville. Let's get to Hogsmeade. We're not safe in here. There's still a battle being fought outside."

They strode down to the secret passageway and got in.

"How did you find me?" asked Neville after a few minutes walk along the passsage.

"I had the Marauder's Map and I saw that Malfoy and Crabbe were up to no good with you."

"How do you know this passage?"

"Harry told me about it. Sometimes Harry, Ron and I used it for… well, for many things. Anyway, the Map would have shown it. By the way, this reminds me. What were you doing over there with those two?"

Neville seemed to think before he said anything. "I was caught in the crossfire between an auror and a Death Eater. The auror won, but he didn't seem to notice I was there, hiding behind a column. He went away and I tried to go after him to ask him where I could hide. Unfortunately, Malfoy and Crabbe saw me and came running after me. Malfoy is much quicker than I am so he grabbed me and took me up there, where he knew no one would interrupt them. By the looks of it he was happy about this battle and was very confident that You-Know-Who would win. He had already tortured some students, probably because they confronted him. He didn't stop babbling about the bright future that expected him once the Dark Lord rose once again to power… And then you came." He paused for a moment "Pretty stupid of me. I was caught because I was a coward." He added, angry at himself.

"No, Neville, you weren't a coward. It took a lot of courage to take down Malfoy like you did, specially after what happened. I am very proud of you, and don't you forget it."

Once at Hogsmeade, Hermione and Neville found themselves in a ghost town. No one was in sight and the only noise was the ocasional blast coming from Hogwarts. Colourful sparks were visible from a good distance. If she didn't know better, she'd say there was some kind of a fireworks show going on that night.

Both stopped to wonder the terribly amazing sight of the blasts against the dark horizon, but suddenly they heard a noise coming from a house twenty feet to the left. Alarmed, they turned around, their wands ready for anything. Hermione signaled Neville – who was trembling with fear once more – to follow her. They moved closer to the house, ducking from windows and looking around for any sign of an intruder.

Both got to the house as quietly as possible. Reaching close to the door, Hermione whispered "_Alohomora_". The door opened slightly and without a sound. For a few moments Hermione didn't move a single inch and just stood listening.

Nothing seemed to move, for the house was as silent as a tomb. However, Hermione was sure the noise came from there, and so decided to adventure herself in. _Pretty reckless thing to do, Hermione!_ _Why don't you just go up to Voldemort himself and try to reason him!_ _Who knows, maybe he'll listen to you! Please, don't go in there! You're walking into a trap!_

Ignoring the bolts of reason her brain furiously tapped into her conscience, she quietly entered the wooden house. The students were there, she knew it. What other reason could there be for a noise in an otherwise deserted town?

"Lumos" whispered Hermione. _Great. First you walk into a trap, then you create light. What next! Might as well just get up and yell to everyone that you're here!_

"Er… Hermione?" winced Neville, who was right behind her, trembling "Are you sure of this?"

_Even Neville knows it's a mistake! _"Come on, Neville. Can't be worse than the Department of Mysteries."

"Well… we were six at the time. Now it's just you and me."

"The Death Eaters are all at Hogwarts, probably getting beaten by Dumbledore and the others. Be positive" she said in a low murmur, trying to convince herself as well.

Before she could even get a good look of what was around her, she felt something tuck her in the head. "Ouch! Neville, be carefull!" she whispered. Just then she felt another thing hitting her right on the shoulder, and it was a harder blow. Neville was hit by something too and was rubbing his left arm. In an instant she reckoned they were being attacked.

But attacked by who? And who would attack them by throwing objects in their direction?

Rolling to the side and urging Neville to do the same, she hid behind a six feet tall clock. "Nox." The light from her wand disappeared, and now they were completely engulfed by darkness at one of the ends of a twenty feet long corridor.

From a distance of probably ten feet she heard the faintest of whispers and then some footsteps. Feeling confident that whoever it was she was facing was coming in her direction, she tapped some courage and stepped out of the protection of the clock. Neville gasped.

"_Impedimenta!" _she heard, and saw a bolt coming towards her. Managing to dodge the spell, she yelled "_Stupefy!"_ pointing her wand to the other end of the corridor, and jumped back to her previous position behind the clock.

A flash of red light lit the narrow space momentarily before hitting a large black shadow, which fell to the floor with a deaf thump. Instantly she heard someone – a girl – scream "Chris!"

Hermione dared to take a peak at what was going on and managed to see the outline of someone kneeling next to a body on the floor, dragging him to one of the rooms along the corridor.

"Is he dead?" she heard someone else whisper.

"No" answered another one. "He's only stunned. _Ennervate."_

"Who are they, Hermione?" asked Neville, nervously.

"Don't know, but I guess they're not Death Eaters. They wouldn't be throwing objects or just trying to disarm us in a fight." She paused for a second. "Maybe they're the students I left behind." Slowly she crawled into open space, but was soon racing back towards Neville and the relative safety of the clock after a dozen attempts to stun her barely missed the target.

Hermione paused a few seconds, listening to the muffled noises coming from across the corridor. Suddenly a big thump was heard and the clock began rocking dangerously from one side to the other.

"Not like that!" she heard someone whisper angrily. "Here, let me do it. _Reducto!_"

Both Hermione and Neville flinched as the spell opened up a crater in the wall just inches from the clock.

"Idiot! You can't even hit the clock! Give me that!" she heard, and didn't need to listen anymore to realize what their next target was.

She threw herself down and dragged Neville along, as the clock was blown into thousands of shards of wood and metal, but before she could get up already they were surrounded by black shadows aiming at them with their wands.

"_Expelliarmus!"_ one yelled, and both Hermione and Neville's wands flew out of reach.

"_Lumos"_ said another, and a magical beam of light hit Hermione right in the eyes, making her flinch and momentarily blind.

"Galloping gargoyles! They're from Hogwarts!" screamed the first one.

Hermione heard them all sigh with relief.

"Hi, I'm Chris. Chris Munster" said a boy, arguably the same age as Hermione's, as he stretched his arm towards her and helped her get up on her feet.

"Er… Nice to meet you… Chris" was Hermione's response.

"You're that girl that got us out from Hogwarts, right?" said a high-pitched voice coming from a little girl Hermione recognized as being a first year Hufflepuff..

"Yes" said Hermione. "Sorry for all this…" She turned back to Chris "Were you the one I stunned?"

He laughed. "Yes, that was me. Pretty reckless thing to do, just walk up to someone you're facing, eh? I guess I thought you were that girl we left back at Hogwarts, but after you stunned me we all thought that you could be a Death Eater after all."

Hermione laughed, and saw that Neville was smiling as well. "I wasn't very prudent too."

"So, who's winning?" asked the little girl.

"I'm afraid I don't know" answered Hermione truthfully. "The only thing I do know is that we're safer here."

"Yeah, that's what the man told us" answered another student from Gryffindor.

"What man?" she said, frowning.

"The man who told us to get in here. He said we were safer inside. I believe his name was Nicholas."

"Nicholas?"

"Yeah, Nicholas Malfoy."

Hermione froze as the sound of the word Malfoy reached her. For a few seconds there was just silence. She exchanged concerned looks with Neville and saw that he too knew what it meant.

"Where is he?" she snapped, turning to the other students.

"Across the street, over there" said Chris, pointing out to the window where a wooden hut was barely recognizable.

Hermione thought for a few moments. "People, we've got to run out of here."

The students looked at her as if she had suddenly gone mental. "Run?" asked a Slytherin student, shyly, "Why? We're safe here, aren't we?"

"Don't you see? It's a trap!" she said, starting to feel her heart in her throat. She stepped forward but the students barricaded her. She tried to push past them, but they held her firm. "What are you doing? Let me pass!" Suddenly she noticed all of them were looking pale and their gaze wasn't focused, like they were looking at something beyond her. They under were under the Imperius curse.

"They won't let you pass, until I tell them to" came the reply from the far end of the corridor, a dark blur against the walls. He moved forward and reached them. Hermione tried to retrieve her wand from her cloak but then she remembered she didn't get her wand back. "Brilliant thing, a child's mind. Even more beatiful, if you add some more children to the mix." He inhaled deeply and let out a long breath, looking like someone smelling fresh bread in the morning. "Would you like a taste?"

The students, still under the curse, created a hole in the barricade just with enough space for the man to pass. He reached his own wand and touched his forehead with it, creating a bright silver spot. Neville ran for the door behind them but, much to his disdain, found it magically locked. Hermione didn't dare move but cursed her luck. The man's wand tried to reach her forehead, but she dodged it. She was starting to pace backwards but four students grabbed her and didn't let go. Neville had been held too. She tried to shake them, but their grip was firm and didn't let her move an inch. The man's wand finally touched her forehead, creating a silver link between their heads.

Instantly she started seeing images flowing around her. It was as if she was in another dimension, watching the lives of many people go by. She recognized their fears, took peaks at their happiest moments and tasted their emotions. Suddenly it vanished, as quickly as it came. She felt dizzy and noticed that she was kneeling to the ground, gasping for breath.

The man let out an evil laugh. "Too much for you?" he asked. "Too bad you don't like it… I think it's great for an appetizer."

"Who are you?" she asked, although she was afraid she'd already know the answer. She got up but still felt dizzy.

"Oh, how rude of me" the man said with forged politeness. "I am Nicholas Malfoy, although some people call me by the name of Patrick Moonruck. And yes, Draco Malfoy was my nephew." He seemed to stop short at this, but then just shrugged. "I didn't like the bastard, anyway."

Hermione stared at him, mouth agape, unable to think properly. _Who is this man, really?_

"I believe the answer to your question is quite simple. I secretely work for Dumbledore. Yes, I know, you have never seen me before and Dumbledore's never spoken of me, but that's what it's all about isn't it? Secret job. Well, even if it weren't secret I think we wouldn't have met either way. I've never been to Hogwarts before."

"Never?" _And how does he seem to know what I'm thinking!_

"No. I studied at Durmstrang. And to answer yet another unverbalized question I'm a very powerful mind controller. Only the Dark Lord and Dumbledore can deny me access to their minds."

"Why are you doing this?"

Nicholas Malfoy – or Patrick Moonruck – scratched his chin for a few seconds, frowning. "I guess I was seduced by the powers of the Dark Lord… Besides, Dumbledore doesn't pay that much for my services. I'm tired of the old git."

"What do you want from me?"

"I'm afraid I can't be quite sure, Miss Granger." he said calmly, a devilish smirk imprinted on his face. "Let's just say we're using you as a bait."

"How do you know my name?" she asked. Suddenly the dizziness disappeared, making way for absolute panic.

"Even though Dumbledore never speaks of his students to me, I believe everyone in the UK must know you."

"How?"

"I thought you to be a very intelligent girl" he said, looking slightly surprised. "Perhaps you're not as smart as –"

"You didn't answer my question" she interrupted.

The man gave her a blood-freezing glare. "Why, your pictures on the _Daily Prophet_, of course."

Hermione's brains worked furiously to remember what she had done in the past to deserve a spot on the _Daily Prophet._ Then it all dawned on her. "The Tri-Wizard Tournament… Harry…" she whispered.

"Ah, yes… It seems Mr Potter developed quite a few strong feelings for you."

Hermione snapped back to reality in a split second. "What do you mean?" She felt herself blush and her heart pumped furiously.

"You still don't understand? You're leading him to us, that's what it means."

"What!"

"The Dark Lord knows a great many things. One of them is Harry's greatest weaknesses. His loved ones. And I believe this time we won't fail."

"How can you be so sure?"

"We have our ways to make it happen…" said the man with an evil laugh, turning back. He strolled forward to the the far end of the corridor and disappeared in the darkness.

Hermione felt herself sink. It would be over. Reckoning Harry would risk his life for his friends without second a second thought, she knew he would come for her rescue if he knew she was being held by a Death Eater. Probably they'd lead him to Lord Voldemort himself and make sure he'd die. The thought of being the bait for Harry's trap made her feel terrible. She wished she could throw herself from a rooftop and die if that, somehow, helped Harry and kept him in the safe hands of Dumbledore.

She could only pray for him.

A tear dropped from her cheek and she realized she was starting to cry. A stream of tears soon erupted from her eyes as she imagined Harry getting killed because of her. Images of her loved one laying dead at the hands of the devil in person sent a bolt of something between being helpless and desperate.

The sounds of Neville struggling with the students awakened her from her transe. Like Neville she had been taken to a large room, presumably within the house. She had been tied to a chair without a fight but Neville wouldn't make his imprisonment an easy task. The students were still under the Imperius curse and they had no idea of what they were doing.

Finally Neville had quit fighting. He looked exhausted as one student tied a rope as tighlty as he could to his body, making him wimper.

The students exited the room after verifying that they were indeed well tied up.

Hermione closed her eyes and repressed her feelings of despair. _I have to warn Harry…_She couldn't imagine how she could help him now, but she knew she had to try.


	4. Whirlpool of emotions

Time went by agonizingly slow and uneventful, from the point of view of someone tied up to a chair in the middle of a seemingly deserted town, which, under all the facades, was probably hiding more Death Eaters and maybe even Voldemort himself.

Unable to think of any way to help Harry, she couldn't keep her feelings at bay much longer and concentrate. Realizing this, she finally stopped repressing her emotions and was swept by an enormous wave of fear and depression.

Harry was coming for the rescue but death would await him. She couldn't bare the thought of having her Harry dying because of her. It corroded her with each passing second and it wasn't long before tears started flowing again. She did no effort to control her sobs this time, which led Neville to look at her with some concern. She didn't care, though. She had to cry. If this was Harry's end, she had to cry.

_Harry!_

_Harry!... _

_Harry…_

_I'm so sorry, Harry…_

_I'm so, so sorry…_

_Please, forgive me…_

_I was so dumb to walk in on this… _

_And now you're coming to rescue me… _

_But that's just what they're expecting…_

_Please, don't come! _

_PLEASE, stay with Dumbledore!_

_PLEASE, HARRY, DON'T COME!_

_PLEASE!..._

_Please…I need you!_

_I need you badly!_

_Please…_

_I love you…_

Hermione couldn't stop the tears from flowing. It seemed as if they acted on their own free will. But then, she didn't want to stop crying. She felt it was right. It was her heart speaking, it was her soul healing. For too long she had renegated her heart to a secondary plan of her life. It was time to let the heart speak.

Her heart spoke for Harry.

It took her some time to realize the tears had finally stopped coming. It took her even longer to realize why. It was him. It was her memories of him.

The time they first met.

The adventures they had.

The time she spent with him.

The time she spent thinking about him.

The times she couldn't sleep, worried sick because of him.

It all dawned upon her.

Happy memories of a strong friendship, good moments when she had been the happiest in all her life.

And in all those moments, Harry was the central piece of it.

He made it possible. He made her happy.

And he was about to step into a trap.

_PLEASE HARRY, FOR MERLIN'S SAKE, DON'T COME! I NEED YOU ALIVE! PLEASE, DON'T DIE! I NEED YOU! I LOVE YOU! I WANT YOU!_

Hermione couldn't help but feel desperate. She had no news from the outside, she didn't know if the battle was over or if it was still raging, and mostly, she didn't know what was of Harry. She looked at a clock hung in the wall just in front of her, only to realize that she did this every ten seconds.

Only fifteen minutes had passed since she had been tied to the chair, but for her it seemed like eternity.

_Fifteen minutes. That's nothing……………… Argh, I can't take it anymore!_

She decided to maintain her self-control, telling herself that being desperate wouldn't help her. She had to keep her cool and react fast.

She was about to concentrate hard again, when a loud explosion startled her and Neville, who was about to fall asleep. In fact, he was so surprised by the blast that he jumped. His chair rocked back and forth a couple of times before dragging him to the floor. Neville groaned as he felt his head throbbing with pain from the recent encounter with the hard floor, but Hermione didin't diverge her attention from the noises out on the street. It seemed that the battle had come to Hogsmeade.

Shouts, screams and blasts filled the air with the kind of adrenaline that only a real battle delivers. Hermione was on the verge of choking but she still forced her ropes forward, in a futile attempt to witness the battle from a closer position. She listened very carefully and eventually recognized the voices from Kingsley Shacklebolt, Tonks and Professor McGonagall.

After a few minutes worth of excitment, the battle seemed to reach its end. A last scream of pain was heard and then came a long enduring silence. Only a few seconds looked like whole years, and there was no sound to be heard. The atmosphere was tense and filled with anxiety. Finally, she heard someone speak. It was Tonks.

"Right. I think we can call it a wrap."

"Don't be so sure. They might still be out there" whispered someone. Hermione recognized the voice, belonging to Mad-Eye Moody.

"I want a full search of the entire village" entoned the rispid voice from Professor McGonagall. "Find the children and meet us here."

"What if we encounter any kind of… resistance?" asked someone Hermione didn't know.

"Proceed as you will. But remember, no killing unless you have no choice. They're no good to us dead" answered McGonagall once again.

Hermione tried to yell, but the scarf around her face muffled the sound, making it barely audible even for her.

At last her agonizing torture of ropes ended when she saw Lupin enter the house.

"Heavens!" he shouted. "Hermione! Neville!" He ran to them and checked if they were alright before waving his wand in a peculiar way, untying them both at the same time.

Neville looked miserable and bruised, but had a relieved smile on his face. Hermione was a whole different case. She did feel some relief, but her heart still felt heavy and swollen.

"Hermione! Good heavens, you're alive!" shrieked Professor McGonagall, watching her come out of the house. Hermione never remembered seeing her so emotional before and was even for a bigger surprise when she felt her bone smashing hug. Tears started running freely across her face and Hermione let out one of her tears too.

Hermione looked around. A few aurors surrounded her, most of them bruised but still capable to fight. Two of them sat at a corner, apparently taken down by some nasty shots, although still breathing. Littering the floor were some stunned bodies belonging to Death Eaters.

"Hey, look what I found." The voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt made them all turn around to see him. He carried someone in his arms and Hermione instantly recognized the body.

"Malfoy!" she let out, a little too louder than she expected. This lead to inquiring looks from Professor McGonagall.

"What did you say, Miss Granger?"

Hermione froze for a moment. Would she tell her that Draco had been killed and that she had been held captive by his uncle who, apparently, worked for Voldemort, controlling a group of Hogwarts students? Would she remain silent?

After a moments worth of introspection, it all came out.

"I'm sorry, professor, it's just that… I know who he is."

McGonagall seemed taken aback by this. She looked shocked. "How?" was all she managed.

"I…" she started, but then sighed "I was taking the students out of Hogwarts. We were coming in this direction but then I noticed Neville was having trouble with Malfoy and Crabbe. I went back to help him and told the students to move along. I'd rejoin them quickly, but I had to know what was happening with Neville. It turned out I took quite a long time to come back and when I did, Neville and I left Draco and Crabbe… dead."

McGonagall seemed frozen but looked like she was gulping every word. Hermione went on.

"We had to kill Draco, otherwise he would kill _us_! I'm sorry, professor, I really didn't mean to! It just… happened…" Hermione looked down at the ground for a moment, feeling dirty, then she took a deep breath "Anyway, we got to Hogsmeade and started looking for the students. We found them at that house, but they were under the Imperius charm. They were hostile towards Neville and me, and that's when we met Nicholas Malfoy."

McGonagall's eyes widened in shock. "Nicholas Malfoy? That's impossible! He died some years ago!"

"I swear, professor. We saw him, didn't we, Neville?" she looked at Neville in search for support and he nodded furiously. "We saw him change. He could change into a different person. He said his name was Nicholas Malfoy but that most people knew him as Patrick Moonruck. He said he worked secretly for Dumbledore and that he was a very powerful mind controller. He even said that he attended Durmstrang and that he was getting tired of Dumbledore's low payment for his services. He turned to Lord Voldemort, and ordered the students to tie Neville and me up. Then he disappeared and you came. That's all I know…"

Hermione was feeling somewhat lighter after her confession. But there was still something missing.

"How's Harry?" she asked.

McGonagall seemed too bewildered by the latest information, so Tonks answered for her.

"He's back at Hogwarts."

What Hermione felt next she couldn't put into words, but she knew it had something to do with enormous relief.

Some aurors escorted Hermione, Neville and the other students (not under the Imperius charm any more) back to Hogwarts. On their way, Tonks explained what had happened.

"Well, you should have seen Dumbledore's face. Pure anger. He indeed is powerfull. I guess that's why no Death Eater chose to confront him unless he had no other choice. He was clearly our greatest fighter" she said in a happy but tired tone.

"What about Harry?"

"Harry fought well too. Not as well as Dumbledore, of course, but he can take care of himself really good. After the Death Eaters started fleeing back to Hogsmeade we got the news from our spy, Patrick, that you and some other students were being held captive. Dumbledore immediatley sent some of us after the Death Eaters to rescue you. That's when it happened." She added with a sad tone in her voice.

"What happened?" Hermione started to imagine the worse but ignored her thoughts, focusing only on Tonks' speech.

"They argued."

"Who argued?"

"Harry… and Dumbledore." Tonks sighed dramatically and looked up to the sky before she said anything else. "Harry knew you were being held and he immediately stormed his way through, but Dumbledore blocked his way and forbade him to go. They argued so loud and so nasty that even the remaining Death Eaters became afraid of them. Who they feared the most, I don't know. Harry was burning with rage, Dumbledore with impatience. Good Lord… I never imagined Harry could burst like that. He ended up ignoring Dumbledore and started making his way here. Dumbledore made no attempt to block his passage again, just saying 'Then we already have lost'. It scared the hell out of me, but I guess I understood what Harry felt. He's very fond of you. I'd also burst if someone blocked my way, knowing my best friend was in danger…"

Neither of them spoke for a whole minute. Finally Hermione broke the silence.

"What happened next?"

"Well… halfway through, Harry stopped short and… oh, I don't know, he started saying he had to go back. He started mumbling, something like you didn't want him to rescue you and that it was a trap for him. I don't know, it's like he suddenly went mental. He trodded back to Hogwarts, rubbing his head, and we did nothing to stop him. I didn't like it though. I'm still afraid to know what happened…"

Tonks seemed fearful, but Hermione beamed with delight. Harry had listened to her! How she did it, she didn't know, but she couldn't care less at the moment. Harry had listened to her pleads and had gone back to Hogwarts! He would be awaiting them back at the Great Hall and Hermione was eager to be back in his company again.

The rest of the walk back to Hogwarts was made in joyful silence.

Hermione reached Hogwarts feeling lighter than ever. She didn't even notice she started running as she came closer to the school building. She was about to see Harry again, safe and sound, and there was nothing that could make her joy disappear.

Nothing could come between Harry and her now.

Nothing, except the sight of Harry's numb body being taken to the Hospital Wing.


	5. Harry vs Dumbledore

Here's another chapter! Woohoo!... or maybe not. Anyway, I hope you don't find this story boring. It may be cliched, or utterly pathetic, idiotic, too messy, too shallow, too hard, too soft, too long, too short (gosh, pick your fault!), but hey I just did it for fun and decided to share it with you. Isn't that what matters? Cheers!

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The world seemed to halt to a stop and her senses refused to accept the reality of what she was seeing. It couldn't be. Harry was not dead. Harry was not being taken to the Hospital Wing. Harry was in the Gryffindor Common Room, probably drinking butterbeer with Ron while waiting for her to arrive. Harry would be there for her. She would be there for him.

"Hermione?"

She heard someone call her, but it seemed like it was coming from a distance greater than the world.

"Hermione?" she heard again.

She slowly came back to reality, realizing she had been staring into the distance of the hall that led to the Hospital Wing for quite some time, judging by the stares she was receiving from everyone around her. Regaining some of her composure, she turned back and saw Professor Dumbledore looking at her sternly.

"P-Professor…" she mumbled.

"Please, come with me" he said calmly, gesturing her to follow him.

He led her into his own office and gestured her to sit down. She did as he said, still too dumbfounded and in shock for what she had seen, too out of herself to react properly, knee-deep in denial.

She didn't realize Dumbledore had called her name twice again before he gently touched her in the arm.

"Hermione." His voice was soft and gentle but had a difficult time to cover up some concern.

She blinked twice, awakening to the real world once again. "I… I'm sorry professor… it's just that – "

Dumbledore cut her short. "First of all I want to let you in all that happened." He shifted in his seat and adjusted his glasses to his nose. "I feared the most when I heard you were being held captive by the Death Eaters." The old wizard sighed and Hermione noticed he looked older and more vulnerable than he ever had, although his aura of power and wisdom never left him. "I must say I did not see ahead of my own nose. I didn't stop to think it was a trap. With all the adrenalin of battle I admit I musjudged the situation. "

"What do you mean?" she questioned, her shock slowly giving way for concern.

"It means my decisions could have compromised everything. I was harsh to decide so quickly but I feared too much for the life of the my students to make any coherent thoughts. My instincts told me I just had to get you all back to safety before I had time to really think about it."

"Well, if you didn't do it, I'd still be tied to a chair."

"If I didn't do it… Well, let's not think about it. At least all ended well, so to speak."

"So to speak?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you see…" Dumbledore was having a hard time to find the right words, and Hermione started to fear what he was trying to say. "I sacrificed too many people today. It is a burden I will take to my grave with me." Dumbledore paused for a moment but then kept on. "I risked more than I should have, and though my intentions were good and the end result was Voldemort's final defeat, things could have turned out to be as opposite as they are now. We could have lost everything the moment I sent some people after you."

Hermione gulped but didn't dare to speak. Dumbledore kept on, apparently oblivious to the fact that he had already gotten up and was pacing back and forth the entire room, his back to the person he was speaking too. It was as if he was speaking to himself. "Never, in my perfect sense, would I permit myself to risk everything like I did today."

Hermione's curiosity and Dumbledore's speeach were killing her with anxiety. "Are you talking about the people who… died?" An uncomfortable lump formed in her throat.

"No." Dumbledore turned to Hermione and looked at her in the eye. She tried to avoid his gaze but found it extremely hard. Dumbledore's eyes were like powerful magnets, oblinging her to look directly into his orbits. "The people that died today… they did it because they chose to. They were aurors and they lived for this moment. I'm somewhat relieved to say that no student was killed during the confrontations – that is, excluding Harry, Draco and Crabbe, but those incidents happened under special conditions" he added, doing his best not to show any emotions.

Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat at the sound of Harry. The thought of him dead was finally slipping in and she found it increasingly hard not to cry. She wanted to explode but she didn't want to interrupt Dumbledore's speech. A little light in the back of her mind continuously kept telling her Harry was alive and that she had probably just misunderstood what Dumbledore had said. It was a long shot in the dark, but in desperation Hermione clung to anything that kept her hopes up.

"Draco and Crabbe are dead. Harry isn't dead, but he isn't in good shape either." Dumbledore coulnd't help letting out a tear despite his best efforts to look calm. Hermione's hopes went up again. So Harry still had a chance! She swallowed hard and focused on every word Dumbledore spoke. "He was badly injured during the fight with Voldemort. It was all my mistake, all my fault. Anyway, I feel the best way to show you what really happened is by letting yu have a closer look." He gestured to a bowl resting on his desk. Hermione hadn't noticed it yet, too clung at Dumbledore's words.

And for the second time that day, Hermione found herself living other people's memories.

_**She was in the middle of the battle. People fought everywhere around her. At her immediate right stood Dumbledore, looking powerful. He made little work of the Death Eater who reluctantly fought him. At her left she saw Ron and Ginny battling against Antonin Dolohov. Although he constantly deflected their spells he seemed incapable of responding, for Ron and Ginny were attacking him almost at machine gun rate. To their left, Tonks battled with another Death Eater. Hermione turned around to her right and her heart made started making loops in her ribcage at the sight of Harry. Immediately at Dumbledore's right side, Harry didn't seem in much trouble with Lucius Malfoy. After stunning him, she watched as he caught the sight of Ron and Ginny and ran to help them. Dolohov was able to fight off two attackers but three was too much. He finally fell to the ground, stunned. Her eyes went wide as she caught a glimpse of Snape, fighting Bellatrix Lestrange. She was indeed powerful and fought well, but Snape held on firm and eventually managed to strike her down. She had never thought it possible to be happy for Snape but she gladly proved herself wrong.**_

_**Suddenly her eyes caught the sight of Nicholas Malfoy appear out of thin air in front of Dumbledore. How could he apparate right in the middle of the grounds? She watched, dumbfounded, as Dumbledore looked at him, his face showing the faintest signs of fear. Nicholas disappeared after a short exchange of words with Dumbledore and Hermione watched Dumbledore calling the nearest fighters available. Aurors who had already taken care of their opponents gathered around him, including Harry, Ron and Ginny. Dumbledore looked ready to dismiss the three of them but thought twice and let them in on what happened.**_

"_**The Death Eaters will soon retreat back to Hogsmeade. I have also just been informed that several students are being held captive there. We need to make a search party and go after them" said Dumbledore.**_

"_**Is it wise to do that, Albus?" Hermione saw Professor McGonagall joining them as she spoke. **_

"_**I can think of no other course of action, Minerva." Dumbledore's urgent tone clearly stated that his decision wasn't open to discussion.**_

"_**Who are the ones being held?" asked Harry.**_

**_Dumbledore looked at him for a few moments, deciding whether or not to tell him. "Several students, Harry."_**

_**Harry didn't seem satisfied by the answer, but he drew back, frowning. He thought for a couple of seconds and suddenly something clicked in his head. He realized. "Hermione!"**_

_**Dumbledore closed his eyes for a moment, probably cursing Harry's realization. "Yes, Harry. Hermione is with them. But she is safe and we will bring her back."**_

_**But Harry wasn't listening. "I 'm going after her!" he shouted and turned around, ready to leave.**_

_**Everyone seemed shocked and Hermione couldn't determine wether it had been from Dumbledore's information or from Harry's sudden outburst.**_

_**Dumbledore didn't let Harry take two steps as he placed his hand on Harry's shoulder and forced him to stop. He then turned him for them to face each other.**_

"_**I will not let you go. You must stay here. If you go you will compromise the whole operation." Dumbledore spoke with a commanding voice but had an apologetic look, like he was sorry to make that decision.**_

"_**I don't care! Hermione's out there, and Merlin knows what's happened to her! I'm bringing her back now!" Harry yelled at Dumbledore, although the old wizard was only just two feet in front of him. **_

"_**Harry James Potter, I do not give you permission to leave these grounds!" Dumbledore shouted, the first outburst Hermione had witnessed. It was scary but Harry didn't seem intimidated by it at all.**_

"_**I don't care if I have permission or not! She's there and I'm bringing her back, even if it is the last thing I do on this world!" Hemione noticed Harry's voice had a hint of despair and that his eyes were welling up with tears. **_

_**She started to sob, watching as a desperate, teary-eyed Harry and an indignant Dumbledore had a heated discussion. She couldn't decide if she was angry with Harry for his lack of thought and selfless behaviour, or if she was happy that he cared about her so much as to openly disobey a direct order from Dumbledore himself.**_

_**The angry exchange of words attracted attention from everyone. Many had gathered around them in a group, eager to witness the verbal challenge. Few remained focused on the still ongoing battle, fighting a very low number of Death Eaters who were starting to flee.**_

**_  
Finally Harry brought the discussion to an end. "I _will not _stay around and do nothing while Hermione is out there! God knows I've nearly lost her once, I will not let it happen twice! And I will go and get her, whether you like it or not!" This said he turned around and stormed away._**

_**Dumbledore did nothing to stop him this time and just nodded in defeat. "Then we have already lost" he said calmly but with a hint of sadness. "Minerva, gather around a few and watch for him, please. Bring all the other students back safe and sound and try to capture as many Death Eaters as possible." **_

_**  
Hermione watched as McGonagall quickly gathered her group and they all started going after Harry. Dumbledore turned around to a gropoup of aurors who seemed to be controlling a magical rope that binded a large group of Death Eaters together in the air, and did not seem surprised to see almost everyone staring at him in disbelief. "Take them down to the dungeons and make sure they don't attempt an escape." He turned back to the students. "Please, children, go back inside. It is safer there."**_

_**All of the students reluctantly returned indoors, taking the wounded and the unconscious to the Hospital Wing, as the aurors herded the Death Eaters to the dungeons.**_


	6. Lord Voldemort is never wrong

Hey! Back for another update! First off, I'd like to thank **rupertlvr** and **PrincessLuckyCML** for being the first reviewers! Thanks guys, you rock! Second off, keep reviewing! Third off, ENJOY!

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_**Only Dumbledore and Professor Snape stayed outdoors, absently watching everyone marching back into the castle. Being inside Dumbledore's mind, Hermione stayed there too, an invisible and translucid presence among them. Dumbledore and Professor Snape exchanged a few words but Hermione didn't listen to them. She looked around, impatiently waiting for Harry to come.**_

**_Professor Snape left them after a few moments and strided towards the castle, leaving Dumbledore gazing at the stars and sighing, after magically sealing the great doors of Hogwarts shut._**

_**Suddenly Hermione heard something from the bushes behind her. She turned around quickly and she could sense some adrenalin being pumped into her blood stream as fear began once again its terrible manifestation, only to realize moments later that she was inside Dumbledore's mind, meaning she coulnd't be seen, heard or felt. Besides, she thought to herself, it must be Harry coming back. Who else could it be?**_

_**Voldemort.**_

_**The Dark Lord in flesh.**_

_**Had Hermione had a real body that instant and she would have fainted. She felt a wave of chills going up and down her spine like a crazy roller coaster and it seemed all her blood had misteriously evaporated into thin air. The man, if you could call the monster walking in front of her eyes a man, was even uglier than she had imagined. Harry had described him as half man, half snake, half spider – which made Ron to shriek in terror and Hermione to frown at Harry's mathematics – but now Hermione thought that anything short of "Ugliest and most terrifying beast of all times" or "Most horrific abortion ever to walk on this earth" would be an understatement.**_

_**Voldemort strode swiflty towards Dumbledore, a triumphant smile glued to his mouth, stopping at a twenty foot distance. Dumbledore stopped gazing the sky above and turned to his nemesis, but he showed no emotion.**_

"_**So… we meet yet again, Dumbledore" said the Dark Lord.**_

"_**Indeed" stated Dumbledore, looking Voldemort in the eyes.**_

_**Voldemort looked aruond for a few moments. "I see Potter isn't around. What happened? Did he get lost?" he said, with false concern.**_

"_**He isn't where he is supposed to be" said Dumbledore in a matter-of-fact tone. "And it is my fault he isn't."**_

_**Volemort's smile widened and his eyes narrowed. "How ironic. You spend your life trying to protect the boy and now it is you who needs his protection. Who would've guessed?" **_

**_Dumbledore said nothing so Voldemort took two more steps in Dumbledore's direction. "Prepare to finally meet your destiny, Dumbledore."_**

_**Dumbledore held a hand in the air. "Before you try to strike me down, I must warn you, Tom. Any attempt to take down this school will cost you dearly. The price for such an accomplishment will be very high" he said, menacingly.**_

"_**Oh really?" Voldemort's voice dripped sarcasm. "I never thought of that. Maybe I should think twice before I attack you?..." There was a tense silence for a whole heartbeat. "Guess what, I've thought twice." **_

_**That same moment he took out his wand and launched a fierce ray of green light towards Dumbledore, who just swatted it away. However, Dumbledore did not attack in return. Instead he just looked Voldemort in the eye, as if daring him to try anything else against him.**_

_**Voldemort didn't seem to understand this behaviour, for he lowered his wand and just stared at his opponent for a few moments. He tried to attack two more times, but Dumbledore only deflected his attempts, simply giving his foe a glare that could freeze molten lava.**_

_**Hermione didn't understand it too and just stood there, looking at them dumbfounded, until she heard something else approaching from behind her. She turned just in time to see Harry coming out of the bushes and stopping short at the sight of Dumbledore and Voldemort facing each other. Then it all flashed on her – Dumbledore was only gaining time! He knew he couldn't kill Voldemort, so he gained time and waited for Harry to arrive.**_

_**Harry looked shocked and didn't dare to move. **_

_**Hermione felt like she had just skipped a heartbeat, and froze in shock too. Another realization downed on her. She led him right to Voldemort. But, how could this be? She saved him from a trap, didn't she?**_

_Didn't I?_

_How could I lead him into another trap?_

_Maybe Voldemort knew I was going to do it._

_How could he?_

_Maybe both situations were real traps. Voldemort could have easily set up things like this to make it impossible for Harry to escape._

_Yes, that would be logical._

_I saved him from one trap, but lead him into another…_

_Oh, dear… what did I do! I try to save him, yet I take him directly to Voldemort, the evil monster who wants to kill him! _

_This is all my fault! He'd be in less danger if he faced Nicholas Malfoy! _

_I'm so stupid! Why didn't I realize this before!_

_**Hermione tried to scream but she couldn't. **_

_I'm so sorry, Harry! Please don't die! Please, don't die because of me! Please, don't die because of my stupidity!_

_Run! Run away! Run while you can!_

_You can fight Voldemort later!_

_**She tried to shout and gesture at him for several agonizing seconds, but Harry couldn't see her or hear her desperate pleads.**_

_**Suddenly, Harry clenched his teeth and put on the expression Hermione was most afraid to see at the time. He took a deep breath and clenched his fists. He took out his wand and narrowed his eyes, focusing on the task he had on hands.**_

_NO! Please, Harry, don't go! Don't leave me!_

_**But Harry was already striding towards Voldemort with a calm but confident pace, frowning in concentration. As he passed by her, Hermione thought she heard him whisper "This is for you, Hermione" but she wasn't sure.**_

**_Hermione seemed taken aback by this and for a moment she just stared at him, dumbfounded. Just then she remembered Voldemort had already been defeated._**

**_Voldemort didn't notice Harry coming towards him until Harry stepped into open space. He turned to Harry and Hermione could see his eyes widening as he was taken by surprise. He tried to get his wand to act against Harry but his moment of shock was all the advantage Harry needed. He was sent flying twenty feet in the air by a powerful _**'Expelliarmus'.

_**Voldemort quickly got up and summoned his wand to him before Harry could react. He turned to Dumbledore. "I will deal with you later!" He turned back to Harry and his face showed just how much hate he had for him.**_

_**Hermione dug her nails into her cheeks and bit her lips nervously.**_

_**Dumbledore quietly retreated from the battle scene and stood watching from a safe distance, looking concerned. Hermione could only find one justification for this – Harry had to face Voldemort. Alone. **_

**_Voldemort shouted _**'Avada Kedavra' **_but Harry dodged the attack, rolling fast to the side and responding immediately. Hermione bit her lips so hard they started to bleed._**

"Reducto!" **_shouted Harry. Voldemort easily dodged his shot and pressed harder on his adversary._**

_**The fight went on for some time. Hermione didn't take her eyes off Harry and dug her nails deeper and deeper into her skin every time he was attacked. Dumbledore stood a few feet away from her, looking miserable. Hermione felt miserable too. It was too much to bare, watching Harry fight by himself the single most evil wizard of all times and not being able to help. For the umpteenth time that day, she felt helpless.**_

_**Harry and Voldemort fought fiercely, both of them not really being able to strike their opponent. Their wands made sure the battle wasn't too one-sided, although Harry had to dodge from spells much more often than Voldemort did.**_

_**Hermione wondered how muchlonger the fight would last. Harry was holding on better than she could ever imagine but he was starting to get tired. Voldemort wasn't in much better shape either. Harry's constant dodges and deflections made him more and more frustrated and irritated, and his concentration started to crumble at a constant pace.**_

"_**I see you have learned many things, young Harry" hissed Voldemort as Harry deflected yet another curse.**_

"_**You'll find that I am full of surprises" came Harry's response. He had a bleeding cut on his right arm from dodging a bolt too close to a big rock.**_

"Avada Kedavra!"**_ Voldemort shouted. The green ray missed Harry by a hair's length as he slid to the floor and hid behind the closest tree. "You can run and you can hide but you can't escape me, Potter. You can keep deflecting and dodging my attempts to kill you for a long time, but you will meet your destiny."_**

_**Harry did not respond so Voldemort kept on talking, knowing better than to go near the tree Harry was using as immediate protection. "I will beat you, and you know that. You stand no chance against me. It is only a matter of time until I finally finish the job I left undone when you deprived me of my body and power. I will stand victorious and you know it!" he snarled. "Why keep on this useless duel? If you surrender now, I'll make sure you have a fast and painless death. It is the least I can do for someone who denied me of my well deserved triumph for almost sixteen years."**_

"_**I'll never surrender!" came Harry's answer from behind the large oak tree.**_

"_**Come on, you know you can't keep this on forever. Might as well quit right now and experience a painless death than to keep the suffering going on. Yes, the suffering. You suffer, Harry. A lot. I sense it in you."**_

_**Hermione, who had gone near the large oak tree Harry was using as protection, saw him twist his face in anger and breathe at a faster rate.**_

"_**And I rejoice everytime you suffer, Harry. When you suffer you make youself more vulnerable. When you suffer I get stronger!" Voldemort kept on. "I can only imagine what could happen if I killed anyone else you love. Oh, the pain… it would be overwhelming. It would be… sweet."**_

_**Harry clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles went white.**_

"**_Let's say I killed that redhead friend of yours. What's his name again? Ah, yes. Ron. A pathetic fellow, just like every other Weasley. Can't blame it on him, though. We don't get to chose our genes…"_**

_**At the very mention of Ron, Harry got up immediately and gripped his wand so hard that it could snap under the strength of his own fingers. He looked ready to jump back into the scene and face Voldemort again, but he knew better. He restrained himself and fought the urge to take Voldemort out of his misery with his bare hands.**_

"_**Then there's Hagrid, that half-giant fool. I can't believe you actually like him so much. What you see in him I cannot imagine."**_

_**Hermione was starting to feel the same as Harry. If she had a body she'd make sure Voldemort would eat his words as painfully as she was hearing them.**_

"_**Finally, there's that mudblood you so desperately look to on times of despair."**_

**_Suddenly Harry jumped out of protection from behind the large tree and into open view. "How dare you speak of her!" he snarled. He had his wand pointed directly at Voldemort, who just smirked._**

"**_Ah, young Harry can't bare the thought of his filthy little mudblood taken away from him. How _**touching**_…" he said, sarcasm evident._**

"_**If you dare to touch a single hair from Hermione you'll regret the day you were born!" Harry said with his teeth clenched.**_

_**Voldemort laughed loud. It was an unpleasant sound and it sent shivers down Hermione's spine. "It seems to me Harry, that you should let yourself go from that sad excuse for a witch. She only makes you weaker." **_

"_**She does not make me weaker!" Harry yelled back.**_

"_**Young fool! Do you think your love for her will make you victorious?" Voldemort laughed loud again, this time longer.**_

"_**Yes, I do! Because you do not understand the power of it! It is love that will bring you down!"**_

"**_The love you have for that mudblood only makes you weaker, Harry. And it is that love that will make _**you**_ go down, TODAY!"_**

**_Harry looked bewildered beyond recognition. He was about to hex Voldemort into next week but, before he could react, Voldemort quickly yelled _**'Crucio'**_ taking Harry down in painful fashion. _**

_**Hermione muffled a sob and turned around. It was too much to see Harry suffering. Dumbledore kept looking, but Hermione was sure he was fighting fiercely not to cry.**_

**_Voldemort bridged the gap separating him from Harry and lifted him up to his feet. Hermione could see that Harry's scar was bright red, and from Harry's expression it was painfully clear that he wasn't enjoying any bit of it. Voldemort then held Harry high up in the air from the collar of his shirt, so that Harry's feet were dangling a good two feet from the floor. _**

"_**I told you your love for that mudblood would kill you, Harry" Voldemort hissed, his head only inches from Harry's. "Lord Voldemort is never wrong."**_

_**If Voldemort was expecting Harry to put on a frightened expression, he was terribly disappointed, for Harry came up with a mischievous smile. Voldemort looked momentarily taken aback by this and did not notice Harry still clutching his wand.**_

"_**There's always a first time to be wrong" said Harry.**_

_**With that he thrust his wand against Voldemort's body. It pierced through Voldemort's skin and penetrated five inches before Harry was satisfied.**_

_**Voldemort was in shock. He didn't move and had an awestruck expression. Hermione and Dumbledore were also in shock and just stared, dumbfounded.**_

"_**I told you love was bringing you down" Harry whispered at his nemesis. He thrust his wand even deeper and then yelled a spell which Hermione didn't know with all his lungs and power.**_

_**Hermione could only see a white aura of power building up around Harry and Voldemort, slowly engulfing them. Harry looked fiercely at his opponent while Voldemort still had his shock expression on. Suddenly both of them were wrapped inside a huge ball of white power for a few seconds until it faded away and disappeared.**_

**_When the white aura evaporated Hermione saw Harry laying face down on the floor, but Voldemort was nowhere in sight. It took her several moments to realize what that meant. Harry had defeated Voldemort._**

_**Harry had won! **_

_**But Harry was unconscious.**_

A/N – So, how was it? Review please!... /does sweet bambi eyes/


	7. One with the Universe

A/N: Well, here goes another chapter... hope you like reading it as much as I'm enjoying writing it!

Cheers!

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_**Hermione was too awestruck to do anything. She just stared, mouth agape, at Harry's limp body for several agonizing moments, unable to regain control of her muscles and start doing something useful. **_

_**Just when she finally started trodding in his direction she remembered she couldn't do anything, for she was inside a memory. She halted once again, and found herself watching helplessly as the great doors of Hogwarts opened and let out several teachers, all running in Harry's direction.**_

_**Hermione Granger helpless and unable to do anything. How ironic. She had always been at Harry's side, always there whenever he needed her. It made her proud to be the one person Harry knew would always be at his side, protecting him – mostly from himself in her opinion – and cutting some of the weight from his heavy burden. But now, Harry's most desperate hour, she was somewhere else, probably still on her way to the castle. **_

_**Suddenly she felt Dumbledore grab her arm and squeeze it gently.**_

"_**Professor?"**_

"_**Are you alright?" he asked softly.**_

"_**I- I… I don't think so…"**_

"_**Let's go back" he said.**_

Just moments later, Hermione was back in Dumbledore's office. But she still didn't feel she was in the real world. She felt numb and… empty. It seemed someone had created a big hole deep within her, one which would start corroding her inside-out. It still felt like she was in a big nightmare, not still herself.

Harry lying on the floor, not moving… But he wasn't dead… he couldn't be, Dumbledore had told her so! He was probably just unconscious, that's all.

_Nevertheless, it hurts seeing him… numb and motionless…like he was really dead…_

"I believe you're searching for some explanations?" Dumbledore's voice woke her from her reverie. She had been staring into the distance for some seconds, she realized.

"Wh- Oh... sorry, professor…"

She turned to look at him and saw he had already a calm mask over his expressions again. She didn't like it. How in the seven hells could he be so calm! The indifference killed her.

"As you see, Miss Granger, I have much to apologize for." Dumbledore paused and sighed. "Well, ask out" he said, looking directly to her eyes.

Hermione blurted out the question that had been burning her tongue for so long. "Is Harry going to be ok?"

"I assure you Harry is getting the best treatment possible. Madam Pomfrey is the best Healer I know and I trust she will do whatever she can to make sure Harry gets better. However, his injuries are more than serious." Dumbledore gazed at her for a few seconds. "I do not wish to lie to you, Hermione. However good Madam Pomfrey may be, she might not be able to be enough."

Hermione muffled a sob with a hand over her mouth and watched Dumbledore shift uncomfortably in his seat. She felt her eyes welling up and all her hope crumbling down like a castle made of cards.

"The spell he used on Voldemort," Dumbeldore kept on "was very powerful and very old, and it takes a lot of energy to cast. It practically depletes one's energy storage. Harry may be very powerful, but he is young and he hasn't reached his maximum potential yet. He risked a lot in casting that spell against Voldemort, because all his energy could have been insufficient. Judging by his potential he would have a good chance of injuring Voldemort, but not killing him. I think that I'm right to believe he didn't use only his power to defeat the Dark Lord. He also used a good fuel – love."

Hermione could almost swear she saw Dumbledore smile.

"Had it not been his love and he'd probably be dead, without any energy left, and only a stunned Voldemort at his feet." Dumbledore got up and walked to the door, where he turned to face her again. "His love killed Voldemort, but it wasn't just some regular, common kind of love, it was _love_, as deep as it gets Love for someone he treasures more than his own life, I reckon. Love for you."

The doors opened and he stepped outside, leaving Hermione staring after him, her mouth once again agape. Not two seconds later, Dumbledore reappeared at the door. "Please, come."

"Where?" she asked.

"Why, to the Hospital Wing, of course."

Hermione restrained herself from jumping off her seat and running like crazy towards the Hospital Wing, and got up slowly, taking little steps towards Dumbledore.

"Come, my dear. Harry's love saved us all, now it is time for _your_ love to save him."

Hermione stopped short. She could only stare dumbfounded at him. How could she possibly save Harry? She was no Healer!

"I know, you're thinking how you can possibly save him. You're not a Healer." Dumbledore said, with a hint of a smile. He took Hermione's hands in his own. She could feel the power emanating from them. He looked once again directly to her eyes with a penetrating glare, but his voice spoke softly. "Don't be afraid. I know you care for Harry more than you like to admit to other people. I know you love him. That's why you were able to contact him when you were being held hostage."

Hermione frowned. How did he know about that!

Dumbledore let out a real smile this time. "I have my ways to know these things. Actually, I was beginning to wonder when your connection would happen."

_Has Professor Dumbledore, the great Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, gone crazy? Connection?_

"You see, magic surrounds us, binding things together, forming connections. Unconsciously, all of us tend to establish connections to everything around us at all times. Consciously, all we do is pull some strings in ways that serve our needs. However, there are different types of connections. Emotional connections are the hardest to pull, and of those, love and hate are the strongest. Thus the all too familiar duel: love and hate. Hate is easier to handle and is quicker to master, making it a weapon more practical to use, but at the same time not as resistant. Love, on the other hand, is harder to come to terms with, turning it into something we somehow know is there but never acknowledge it. It is harder to notice and much slower to use, however it is much more powerful than hate. The power hate uses to destroy is weaker than the one love uses to build. There's nothing stronger and more resistant than a connection of love."

Dumbledore paused for a few moments, letting the words slip in. Hermione said nothing as the words plopped onto her mind, slowly turning Dumbledore's words into something that made sense.

After a moment's worth of awkward silence, Dumbledore continued his speech. "You and Harry share a connection of love. And I dare say it is the most powerful one I have ever witnessed in my whole life. Usually, when two people make a connection of love they tend to think alike and react alike. We tend to get along very well with people we can relate to and share common things with. However, you and Harry are very different from each other. Normally, two different auras turn hostile towards each other, thus attracting a hostile connection between them, but your case is a whole lot different. You complete each other. What one lacks, the other compensates and vice-versa. When two people like that love each other, they form the most powerful bond known, unbearable for hate. You and Harry share that unbreakable bond, and it was that bond that destroyed Voldemort. It is that bond that will make you save Harry, I'm sure of it."

Hermione stood silent for several more seconds, thinking about everything Dumbledore said. It all made perfect sense. Just one thing didn't quite seem right. "But, how am I supposed to help? I know very little about treating serious injuries, especially when they were caused by a spell I didn't even know existed!"

"You will know when you get there, I assure you. Don't worry about the spell. It carried all of Harry's emotions deep into Voldemort's soul and it destroyed him. However, it drained almost everything Harry had for energy, leaving just enough for him to breathe and simply be. It hasn't been used for centuries. I doubt anyone even recalls of hearing about it. I just know about it because… well, being Headmaster has its advantages…" He coughed softly and grinned.

"I wonder how Harry knew it…" She suddenly felt very embarassed. Harry had learned a spell she didn't even know about.

"That just shows how strong your connection is" was Dumbledore's simple response.

Hermione blinked and looked at him for a few seconds, her eyebrows shot up. "What to do you mean?" she said after several moments of silence.

"He knew he had to reach for his soul and his emotions in order to defeat Voldemort. In doing so, with the help of your powerful connection, he was in contact with every living and non-living things. He was one with the Universe and he found what he needed to do as naturally as he loves you." Dumbledore smiled openly again, with a warm look in his eyes.

Hermione couldn't help but smile too.

Dumbledore started to make his way to the Hospital Wing, and Hermione followed him.

"Professor," she said, walking at Dumbledore's side "there's another thing I want to ask you."

Dumbledore stopped and turned to her, his expression unreadable.

_Damn, that mask again! Why does he have to look expressionless all the time?_

_  
Quit nagging! Speak!_

Shaking her head from her internal arguments, she breathed in heavily. "I… I saw someone apparate inside the school grounds…"

If Dumbledore was surprised to hear this, he did a great job of covering it up, for his facial muscles didn't move a single inch. "Apparate? Inside the school grounds?"

Hermione looked around. Students were starting to fill the corridors with life again, and she didn't want to talk about what happened with prying ears all around her. "I think it is better to talk in private" she said, motioning to the crowd that was starting to gather around Dumbledore. Surely, many students wanted to know what happened from the mouth of the Headmaster himself.

"Very well, then." Dumbledore looked around and motioned her to follow him into a deserted classroom. After both of them were inside, he magically sealed the doors against any intruders – including extendable ears – also casting a silencing charm around them. He turned back to Hermione, and kept his emotions at bay. "Who did you see apparating inside our grounds?"

"Nicholas Malfoy, sir."

This time Dumbledore did nothing to hide his surprise. "Nicholas Malfoy you say?" He seemed to frown a little, probably thinking, but after a few seconds, much to Hermione's surprise, he just chuckled. "You say you saw Nicholas Malfoy apparate inside Hogwarts' grounds."

Hermione nodded.

"No one can apparate inside school grounds, and Nicholas Malfoy is no exception."

"But- But I saw him just appear in front of you during the fight with all the Death Eaters!" she protested.

"He didn't apparate, my dear." Dumbledore gave her a sympathetic look. "He's an animagus. He turns himself into a fly. What you really saw was his tranformation from fly to man. If we can call him a 'man' " he added, as an afterthought.

"Oh" Hermione said, as the information sinked in. It seemed she was having a little problem processing all the information she had received in the last minutes.

"I never thought he'd go so far as to do what he did." Dumbeldore said, and his eyes narrowed "I always knew he played a dangerous game, but I never thought he'd really change sides."

Hermione eyed him quizzically.

"Nicholas Malfoy was a double agent. He worked for both Voldemort and me. That's why I never let him near Hogwarts." he said, before Hermione could even express her surprise. "Malfoy was born with a very powerful mind and he took a lot of pride in it. He earned the respect from Voldemort, who tried to convince him to offer his services in exchange of unthinkable power and wealth. But Malfoy didn't need wealth or power. Although he lived in Bulgaria, he was Lucius Malfoy's brother, so he had a very comfortable position in life. Secretly he worked for me, and so he came to me, asking for advice. I told him we could use as much spies inside Voldemort's army as we could, so he accepted Voldemort's offer. I guess all that time working for Voldemort corrupted his mind and made him change sides…"

Dumbledore didn't look at Hermione during this piece of information, and by the way he was looking, Hermione was rather glad of it. Dumbledore seemed like he could burn holes in her head if he looked her way. Suddenly, his angry face became expressionless again, and he looked back at her. "So, you see, I have much more to apologize for than you ever imagined."

Dumbledore exited the classroom and headed for the Hospital Wing, with Hermoine silently following behind.


	8. A failed attempt

**A/N: Hey, it's me again with yet another chapter for your entertainment! **

**PrincessLuckyCML: lol, I am evil, I do like cliffhangers... anyway, you'll have to wait and see what will be of Harry, maybe next chapter, who knows? )**

**kutekelcie: I don't know what to make of Harry yet... Glad you're liking the story, keep reading and reviewing! )**

**Just off the record for a moment, hope you guys check my new story, it's a short but sweet ficlet... still new in the business, and any hints will be gladly recieved!**

**Well, enjoy!**

**Cheers!**

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"Hermione!" Hermione heard Ron cry out as soon as he saw her following Dumbledore, both coming in his direction. 

"Ron! Ginny!" Hermione ran to meet her friends and enveloped them in a hug for a few seconds. "It's good to see you guys are OK" she said after they pulled apart.

"We were worried sick with Harry and you" said Ginny, sniffing.

"Yeah. We saw Harry being brouhgt here and apparently he was unconscious. Then we didn't know anything about you so we thought something happened to you too, and – "

"Ron, you're babbling…" said Hermoine, with a look of sympathy.

"Oh… sorry… It's just that Madam Pomfrey doesn't let anyone in there and just being here as time goes by, doing nothing, it makes me want to crawl up the walls!"

"Ron, everything's going to be fine. I'm perfectly fine and Harry's going to be fine as well, you'll see. He'll be out of there soon" Hermione said, more hoping than anything.

Just then Madam Pomfrey swung open the doors for the infirmary and invited Dumbledore to enter.

"Miss Granger will come with me too" Dumbledore said quietly, motioning Hermoine to follow him. While Madam Pomfrey just nodded and let them in, Ron and Ginny gave Hermione questioning looks.

"I'll be back soon. There's just something I have to do" she explained briefly, before disappearing behind the doors of the infirmary.

As soon as she entered, she caught sight of Harry's bed. He lay down neatly in a quiet slumber, but aside form his regular breathing Harry looked as good as dead. His face showed a blank expression and he didn't move an inch. He didn't aknowledge Hermione's presence, nor Dumbledore's or Madam Pomfrey's in the case.

"Harry…" Hermione whispered. She lay a hand on one of his and proceeded to caress his cheek with the other. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes and she muffled a few sobs. _So peaceful, so quiet, yet so… dead. This is not my Harry… How am I ever going to bring him back?_

"Headmaster, I have done everything I can" Hermione heard Madam Pomfrey say. "Only time can determine Harry's fate now."

"Thank you, Poppy. I'm sure Harry will appreciate your efforts" Dumbledore said.

"I hope he makes it." The nurse seemed on the verge of tears too.

He gently patted Madam Pomfrey in the back. "He will make it. Harry has always been a strong fellow."

Madam Pomfrey shook her head and wiped the first rebelious tear. "Poor boy…" She turned on her heels and walked away, as Dumbledore looked after her with a sympathetic look.

Hermione looked up at him once the nurse had gone to check on other pacients. "What am I to do now?"

"My dear, the answer is in yourself" Dumbledore simply replied.

Hermione frowned. _In myself?What the-? _"Professor… what do you mean?"

"Precisely what I said."

This wasn't going well. _There's no time to play riddles, Headmaster! Merlin, why doesn't he tell me what to do and get on with it!_ "I don't understand. Do I have to give him blood or something like that?"

Dumbledore smiled but shook his head slowly. "It is something far simpler than that." And with that he left, leaving Hermione staring after him, frowning in confusion.

Hermione sat beside Harry's bed for a week, gently stroking his hair while trying to figure out what to do, only leaving for a few minutes to go to the toilet whenever she felt the urge to. Ron had also been allowed to enter the infirmary every once in a while, but only because he was the only one who could convince Hermione to eat something.

"Come on, Hermione, you know you have to eat something!" cried Ron in an exasperated and tired tone.

"I already told you, Ron, I'm not hungry! When I feel like eating, I'll eat!"

"And when will that be? _Next century_? Please, Hermione, eat something! You'll be ill if you don't!" Ron begged, and Hermione sensed he was on the verge of getting down on his knees.

Hermione huffed indignantly. "Can you stop worrying about me for just one second and stop bragging around?" Just as the words left her mouth she immediately regretted them. She had been edgy because she hadn't found the answer to Harry's problem yet and poor Ron, who was just trying to help, was having it all crush down on him.

Surely, Ron looked genuinely hurt. "How can I not worry about you? Look at you! If you don't eat anything you'll be seriously ill! Is that what you want? To be ill, unable to help Harry in _any_ way?" he yelled indignantly.

She winced. "I'm sorry…" She buried her face in her hands and started sobbing uncontrollably. "I haven't been myself lately. It's just that I can't believe it, Ron. I always thought that when he defeated Voldemort we would have a huge celebration and drink butterbeer until we dropped unconsicous and then we'd drink some more, all the while watching Fred and George's fireworks lighting the sky and dancing around the fire under the moonlight. I always imagined Harry coming to us with a big smile on his face, perfectly fine and healthy, not this… this…" Hermione was having a hard time finding the words that matched her state of mind "… this _undead_ form… It's not fair! It's not fair! It's just not bloody fair!" She punched her leg hard and immediately winced in pain. "It… it hurts too much to see him like this, Ron…"

Ron's indignance immediately vanished and he rushed to hug Hermione, rocking her gently. "I know… It hurts me too, Hermione… Harry's my best mate and I too want to celebrate this victory with him and you and everyone, but now we have to fight on. Harry did his part, he defeated V-V-Voldemort… now this is _our_ time to be strong for him. He deserves every bit of it."

Hermione only nodded, barely registering Ron's first 'Voldemort'. She also didn't notice he had broke their contact and had reached for a huge plate with food he'd brought from the kitchens.

"Come on, eat something. Starving yourself to death won't help" he said softly.

Finally, Hermione agreed. She took the plate from him, picked the food for hours, having only a few bites of pumpkin pie every now and then, but that was already a great achievement in itself, given her state, so Ron decided not to push it further.

However, Ron could not convince her to sleep. She had huge dark rings below her eyes and by the seventh day she couldn't get up from her chair in fear she would fall and never get up again. So she sat and waited for an answer to come – Dumbledore didn't allow her to have any contact with books whatsoever – while Ron felt helpless. She understood him, he didn't know what else he could do, and seeing his two best friends in almost vegetating states didn't help at all.

Oh, she knew how it was to feel helpless.

On the tenth night, however, the lack of sleep became overwhelming and Hermione couldn't help but fall into a deep slumber which lasted almost a whole day and was quite uneventful, except for one dream.

_**She was exactly in the same place she had been for the last days. She felt tired and Harry did nothing besides breathing in and out in a slow but regular rhythm. Everything was the same. She looked around and saw nothing different.**_

_**She looked down at Harry and gazed into his closed eyelids, hoping they would open soon. Suddenly she saw a water drop falling on top of Harry's blanket and felt an enourmous wave of grief and anger from failure. How could she, Hermione Granger, top witch in her class, fail?**_

_**Another drop. This one missed the target too, hitting Harry's chin. Argh! Work, damn it, work!**_

_**Yet another drop, and this time it hit the spot: Harry's forehead. Yes! Yes! Satisfaction was in order.**_

Hermione woke with a start and shot her head up so quickly that her neck protested with pain for a good half hour. The pain, however, was nothing compared to the awkwardness she felt. The dream had been so strange, yet so real…

Maybe this was the solution for Harry's problem! Suddenly her hope seemed to boost sky high. She jolted up from her seat, but her quest was soon interrupted as she crashed down on the hard stone floor. Her muscles were lazy from lack of use in the late times. Mumbling curses behind clenched teeth, she slowly forced her legs to take her to the nearest water source.

When she got back to Harry's side, she dipped a finger into the glass she had filled with water and eagerly aimed for Harry's forehead. With anticipation, she watched the drop fall and splash just like in the dream.

She waited.

Nothing.

She waited some more.

Nothing.

She waited even more.

Nothing.

An hour passed by and Hermione didn't take her eyes off Harry's forehead. However, nothing seemed to have happened, except for the fact that the drop had already evaporated.

She groaned loudly in frustration, leaning back on her chair again. The plan didn't work. What was going wrong? Sitting back on her chair, she let out a dejected sigh. _It was just a dream, after all… Nothing more, just a dream…_

Slowly, she found herself drifting off to slumber land again, Dumbledore's words very clear in her mind.

"_**My dear, the answer is in yourself"**_

"_**It is something far simpler than that."**_


	9. Rock and vegetable

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, but work's killing me! Anyway, hope this was worth the wait for you guys.**

**Gred: Hope this wasn't too long a wait for you... lol Thanks**

**As my other story _This is truly my first kiss_** **is a one-shot, I shall responde to my reviewers in this story from now on.**

**So, **

**call me brit: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks :)**

**Jarodparker82: I'm honoured to get such flattering words of encouragement! And I do promise you that my HP stories (the ones that envolve romance) will always focus around Hermione and Harry. **

**OK, just one more thing before I bore you all into tears with my long A/N: If you haven't checked out my other story, plese be so kind as to do so! And leave a review too, if it's not asking for too much... :)**

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Ron sat on a chair beside Hermione, watching her eat up a whole pumpkin pie with satisfaction. She had been terrifyingly hungry these past days and pumpkin pies seemed to lighten her up a little. Ever since she had the dream she was alternatly filled with hope, then desperation, then hope again. Every night she'd have the same dream over and over again and every day afterwards she'd try a new way to wake Harry up. Classes were going on again, but Hermione had been granted permission to skip them as long as she needed in order to help Harry Potter wake up from his slumber and, though she didn't like the idea of skipping class (even though she already knew everything they would talk about), Harry was her top priority. She felt she couldn't afford to leave the place beside his bed in fear she would lose precious time, or worse – lose Harry for good.

But not being allowed to come even close to a book gave her a hard time. _How can I find the answer to this problem without consulting books! They must have the solution to this problem, I'm sure! Why does Dumbledore want to keep me away from them? How come the answer is in **me**?_

To add salt to the wound, all her attempts to bring Harry back to the world had been frustrated. She had tried everything she could remember that had healing properties but nothing seemed to work. Not being able to help the one she loved to rise again killed her from the inside out.

"Oi. Hermione. Anyone in there?" Ron knocked softly at her head.

Hermione jumped in her seat, startled, and only then she realized she had been staring off into the distance, a half eaten pie in a plate sitting on her lap. "Sorry, Ron… were you saying something?" She put on a fake smile and tucked a stray of hair behind her ear.

"I've been trying to call you for the last ten minutes or so!" Ron looked exasperated. "I was starting to get worried you had gotten yourself turned into a vegetable or something."

Hermione laughed at this remark but could no longer hide the fact that her smile was a sad one. "No, not a vegetable, Ron, not a vegetable… more like a… a rock."

"A rock?" the poor Weasley looked deeply puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"I'm stuck in here without any answers, and it's like I can't move or breathe or… like I can't even live" she paused and looked at the boy she had learned to love lying on a bed, almost lifeless. "It's like part of me just _exists_."

They sat there in silence for a couple of minutes until Ron checked his watch and got up from his seat. "Well, Hermione, I'm off to the library" he said, not the least excited about it.

"The library?" This seemed to have surprised Hermione. "Since when does Ronald Weasley goes to the library?" she laughed.

Ron couldn't help but blush a little. "Well, I'm sort of, uhm… meeting someone there." Suddenly he seemed to be very interested in the tiles on the floor.

"Who is she?" she asked, a ping of curiosity slowly making its way to her.

The redhead blushed even more, and all of a sudden looked nervous. "H-How do you know it's a girl?"

"Well, girls know these things…" she said dreamily. "And besides, if you were meeting the boys you would certainly not do it in the library."

Ron didn't say anything.

"So, who is she?" Hermione asked again, after some moments of silence.

The redhead mumbled something incoherent, so she had to ask once more.

"Luna" he said, this time clearly.

"Well well well, it seems today you're full of surprises" she said happily. "Why are you meeting her?"

"Work…" he mumbled, his tone one of disappointment.

Hermione sensed it and wouldn't let it pass unquestioned. "You don't look too excited about it."

"I'm not…"

"Why not?"

"Because it's just that, work." Ron took some time looking at the floor, thinking what to say. "I've been doing homework with her ever since classes restarted."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up in great speed. "You've been doing your work?"

"Well… Luna is quite smart and she explains things well and… I don't know, it seems I kind of like to do it with her…"

Hadn't Hermione's eyebrows already shot up, they'd do it this time for sure. Ron, it seemed, had started to do his school work on a regular basis. And all because of Luna Lovegood. Something wasn't quite right there.

Something was missing.

"So, why the disappointment?" she asked, heading directly to the point.

Ron sighed heavily. "I don't know how long I can keep it up." He paused and sighed again. "Things have become different without you and Harry. It seems the classrooms are bigger, and scarier. I tried teaming up with Seamus and Dean and Neville and, sure enough, they're good company but they can't help me with all the work because they're just as stuck into it as I am. At first I remembered of asking you to help me since you already know everything we're learning, but since you're here all day trying to save Harry I thought that I couldn't bother you with other things because you already had enough on your back. Well, I didn't really know who to go to, but Luna showed up and offered to help me. And so she and I have been doing homework together since then."

Hermione offered him a warm smile. Ron had matured, she knew it. But… "I still don't understand the disappointment there."

"I guess… I guess I'd like it to be something other than quill and parchments for once. I don't know how I ended up like this, but all of a sudden it seems my brain doesn't focus on anything else besides her when we're in the library."

And all of a sudden Hermione understood everything.

Ron kept going, not noticing a smile slowly growing on Hermione's lips because he hadn't taken his eyes off the floor. "I can't think right, I can't concentrate, it's worse than having to write an essay on the effects of some nasty potion during a summer day when everyone's out playing quidditch. We talk a lot – well, she talks a lot, because she's the one explaining me things, but it's only work. And for once I'd like it to be something different."

"How different?"

"Don't know…" he shrugged "Different. Something normal. Something that doesn't have anything to do with work." He paused and then looked up at Hermione. "Am I going crazy?"

Hermione had a big smile on her face, while she shook her head slightly. "No, Ron, you're not going crazy. It's something far more simple than that."_ Hmm, that sounds familiar..._

"Well, I have to go now. I'll see you tomorrow." And with that he left, leaving her staring after him with her smile still plastered on her face.

Suddenly she found herself rooting for Ron to find love and to be happy. He deserved it. Sometime during the summer she had heard rumors about Ron's possible interest in her, and that had made her somewhat uncomfortable. All had been dismissed though, as she had found out from a very reliable source that Ron only saw in her another member of his family. Another sister, so to say. She laughed slightly as she remembered Ron's face twisting in mock disgust as Harry told him about the rumor. It all had ended with them drinking butterbeer and spending an entire evening imagining odd couples for each one of them, rolling on the floor with laughter as they tried to picture Harry flirting with Mrs Figg, Ron with professor Trelawney, Hermione with Grawp and Ginny with Mr Filch. They had had the most fun that evening.

She was a sister to him and he was the brother she never had.

Her smile, however, dissipated rather quickly once she found herself gazing into Harry's numb body, and her happy expression gave way to a sad and desperate one.

As time went by Hermione grew more and more desperate to find a quick solution for Harry's problem, and all her frustated attempts were starting to take their toll on her emotions.

How she longed to see the day when Harry woke up, to be the first one he saw, to hold him tight and feel safe again, to pull him into a deep kiss, one which would pour all of her emotions into him and make him see how she felt…

How she longed to hear 'I love you' coming from his lips.

How she longed to say it back to him.

She got up from her chair and walked to his bedside, gently passing her hand through his hair. Like a pin drawn to a magnet, she lay on top of him and rested her head on his chest, being careful so as not to do any physical damage to his already weak body.

Time slowly engulfed the night in darkness, and Hermione found herself devoid of any thoughts. Only emotions came, and with them the tears. She had been crying for almost an hour, and the blanket that covered him up to the collarbone already had a big wet spot. Finally she looked up and gazed into his closed eyelids. Slowly she got up, and as this was done another tear fell, this time on his chin. She didn't notice it though, the tears were flowing freely like water down a fall. She lowered her head to give him her usual goodnight kiss but, as she had her head leved with his, yet another tear fell, this one on top of his scar. And this time she noticed it, stopping in her tracks, gazing at it glowing in the moonless night. Unexplicably she felt an urge to kiss it and so she did, pouring into that smallcontact ofher lips with his skinall she felt for the boy.

And all of a sudden Hermione's vision was blinded by a huge white aura of pure magic and emotion that lightened the night as if it were day, a huge beacon in a world of darkness.


	10. Growing cabbages

**Hey! First of all, I would like to apologize everyone for being so late in my update, but it's been pretty tough getting some free time lately... Anyway, here it is, and I hope you like it! Let me know what you think, OK?**

**Fred: Sorry for the long wait... and thanks for reviewing!**

**JarodParker82: I know what you mean, I think many portrait Ron in a way I don't see him. I don't think he's heartless, he's just too prone on acting based on emotions rather than stopping and thinking about things. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!**

**Cheers!**

* * *

"Shhh! She's waking up!" Hermione heard someone say, but didn't recognize who. The sound seemed to come from a great distance.

She tried to move but her body ached terribly.

More voices, but still no face to relate them to.

Slowly she opened her eyes, her whole sight blurred, and blinked. A long, white beard came into focus just in front of her.

"How are you feeling?" a deep but sweet tone asked.

She tried to speak but as she opened her mouth it seemed to feel as dry as a desert. With some effort she managed to let out a grunt.

"Don't worry, it will be over soon. You'll feel better in a few hours."

"Where am I?" her voice came raspy and almost incomprehensible.

"The same place you have been for the last days"

Like a gigantic wave, all of the happenings of the last days struck her at the same time, making her jump in bed and cry 'Harry!' with all her lungs. The world came into focus in an instant and she now had full conscience of everything, including her burning throat.

Everyone around her jumped, startled with the sudden outburst. Only Dumbledore remained still, a big smile plastered on his face. "I see your recovery has been quite fast."

Hermione sat up straight and looked around. Lupin, Tonks, McGonagall and Ginny were already smiling at her. Snape just stood there beside them, his face expressionless. Ron, on the other hand, was still having a hard time recovering from the shock, breathing heavily, one of his hands as if grabbing his heart, the other grabbing Luna's.

Dumbledore had a –

Ron's hand grabbing Luna's?

How did _that_ happen?

"Welcome back, Hermione" said Luna, wearing a big smile and a dreamy expression, but not taking her eyes off the newest edition of the Quibbler.

"Th-Thanks?" Hermione was quite shocked, to say the least. She was so surprised that she jumped a good six feet in the air the moment she felt something on her shoulder. It was only Dumbledore's hand but she only noticed that after falling to the bed again. She took a few deep breaths and forced herself calm. "What happened?Why was I sleeping?"

Dumbledore chuckled. "Sleeping? Well, if you like to call it that way… it seems you have slept for the last four days, Ms Granger."

"Four days?"

Too much shock at once can take its toll on someone.

* * *

"Welcome back again, Hermione." 

This time Hermione recognized the voice at once. It was Ronald Weasley.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Like I've been run over by a dragon…" She opened her eyes and passed her hand by her aching forehead. She felt like a total train wreck.

"Well, I'm not surprised" he shrugged.

"I am… what happened?"

"You fainted. Again" he stated naturally. He sat on a chair beside her bed.

"No, not that. Before that."

"Well, I can't say much, because I don't know much. Dumbledore only told me you passed out four days ago. I've been paying you and Harry regular visits ever since, although Dumbledore said that you would only wake up today."

"Hence the gathering around me earlier today…" Hermione said.

"You just can't help it, can you?" Ron smiled.

"Help what?"

"To be the smartest witch ever. To think. To come to logical conclusions in less than a heartbeat. Right conclusions, I might add."

Hermione was speechless for a few moments, too traumatized to say anything. "Who are you and what have you done with Ron?"

"Oh, don't give me that. I'm starting to see the world with new eyes, but I didn't change that much. I still don't miss your constant nagging and bragging, and your know-it-all attitude" Ron spoke confidently, trying to defend his position as a very manly person "As a matter of fact, it was good not having anyone to murder me with work…" He paused and thought for a second "Although I did miss you being there…" The redhead blushed so much his cheeks matched his hair.

This was more like the Ron she knew. Not quite, but closer nonetheless. Hermione smiled. And then she remembered: "Why were you holding hands with Luna?"

Against all odds, Ron's cheeks turned an even stronger shade of red. "Well… we're sort of… uhm… dating."

"You're dating Luna Lovegood?"

"Yes." Ron seemed to find the floor tiles very interesting all of a sudden.

Hermione was rendered speechless once again. And once again, after a few seconds when she found it impossible to speak, something struck her. "Where's Harry?" It came out more like an obligatory demand and not so much as a regular question, but the matter was of utmost importance.

"He's still _sleeping_…" Ron couldn't hide some disappointment in his voice, although Hermione was sure it wasn't directed at her but more at the situation itself.

She felt as if she was falling into a bottomless pit. All that had happened… all that time being there at his side, trying evetrything to bring him back into the world of the living… all in vain…

_Please, let this be a bad dream…_

_How come have I failed **again**?_

_But… it felt so right! It was the way to do it! The white light, the tears, the kiss… It was supposed to work!_

_Darn it! How am I ever going to bring him back now?_

A door to her left opened and from behind it appeared professor McGonagall. She strided towards her bed and halted just a few inches from it, not aknowledging Ron. "Ms Granger, I see you have awaken. You have been granted permission to resume your classes. And yes, you may start reading again. I shall expect you tomorrow in my classroom as usual." Her voice was stern and sharp. For a few seconds, no one said anything. "Until then, get some rest" she said with a sweeter tone, and winked, turning back to exit the same way she had entered the Hospital Wing in the first place.

"Professor?" Hermione called out, before the teacher reached the door.

McGonagall turned around and faced her. "Don't worry about Harry, dear. He will be alright" the teacher said with a forced smile. "I hope…" she added to herself, as she turned again and left, leaving a puzzled Hermione staring after her.

"McGonagall has been acting very strangely lately…" Ron said, as soon as McGonagall had closed the door behind her.

"Why?"

"Don't know for sure… Must have something to do with not having you around, and with Harry's situation, I guess… She almost goes bonkers in class, I tell you!"

Hermione couldn't supress a giggle or two. "How come? Did she turn any of you into a pink flamingo?"

Ron looked at her like she had suddenly grown cabbages in her forehead. "How do you know that?"

Hermione shot her eyebrows up "It happened?"

"Yeah…" was Ron's answer, as quiet as a whisper "Poor Seamus…"

"Why Seamus?"

"Well…" Ron seemed to think about it but then just shrugged it off. "It's a long story. I'll tell you some other time. But I think not having her best student in class is making her very nervous… sometimes she can't get a grip and just starts shouting at everyone"

Hermione sighed. The next day was going to be a long one.

The longest one in her life.


	11. Nine o'clock

**And voila! Yet another chapter in this ever growing story. Hope you like this one.**

**Yes, I do have a thing for duels and big fights... I'm a guy, what do you expect? lol**

**Jarodparker82: Yes, unfortunately my latest chapters have been kinda short. I'm sorry for that, I like to read/write long chapters too... And the pink flamingos were just something that popped into my mind. Don't worry, they'll be back :)**

**dbzgtfan2004: Thank you for coming by! Please continue doing so! I will continue writing this story too. And of course, Harry/Hermione 4ever:)**

**CrazyPoet: I'm glad you liked it! Hope to see you around more often :) Unfortunately, this story hasn't been getting that much reviews... dunno why, but anyway, things will get better... I hope... lol**

**Cheers! (and enjoy!)**

* * *

Hermione walked aimlessly around the trees of Hogwarts' grounds under the star filled night. The moon was no where in sight and a slight breeze roamed through the mountains, making it wonderful conditions for a little midnight walk. The lake was a calm pool of dark silver waters, and the great castle of Hogwarts was a beacon lit against the horizon. A big rock right by the lake invited her to sit down and relax a little after all the events of the last weeks, and so Hermione took her shoes and her socks off and sat down, dipping her feet into the water. Although the lake had icy cold water, it was actually quite relaxing once she got used to the temperature. She sat there for Merlin knows how long, gazing the amazing collection of stars the night had decided to show. 

And then, suddenly, something wasn't quite right. It took her a few seconds to realize what it was, but when she found out she screamed with all her lungs. She yanked her foot away from what seemed to be a tentacle wrapped around it and fell backwards to the grass behind her. Forgetting her shoes and socks she ran away, not even bothering to look where she was heading. All that mattered was to get away from the tentacle that had tried to grab her for God knows what purpose.

Had the giant squid suddenly turned its killing mode on?

_No, it couldn't be. The squid wouldn't hurt a fly!_

_Well, depending on the fly, really… but no, it wouldn't harm a student!_

Being busy with her own thoughts while still running away like mad could only mean one thing.

Hermione tried to get on her feet but her head ached so bad it made her dizzy. How did that tree suddenly get in the way? Not really able to get up, Hermione crawled away from the scene. However, she didn't make it two meters before the light breeze turned into a freezing cold wind. The perfect night had turned into a horror movie scenario.

"My my my… what have we got here?" said a voice from behind her, one she knew too well.

"M-M-Malfoy?" She turned around to see the blond boy, looking alive and very healthy. He wasn't wearing Hogwarts robes anymore, and had a dark cloak around him instead. "This can't be!" Her heart pounded vigorously against her chest and she felt like her stomach was trying to push everything she had eaten the day before up the way it had entered.

"Well, turn me into a penguin and make me do the twist with a rose in my beak! If it isn't good ol' mudblood Granger" he said, dripping sarcasm with every word.

"Don't call her that!"

Hermione turned around and watched as a very confident Ron walked towards the little ferret of a boy, his wand ready and aimed to blast him into oblivion.

"Ron?" Hermione said, a little hope crawling back into her soul, although she couldn't believe what her eyes were making her see.

"Don't worry, Hermione, everything will be fine" he said, without taking his eyes off his opponent.

Malfoy kept on his trademark smirk and didn't flinch, even when Ron was just a few feet away from him, pointing his wand square at his chest. "Weasel, how good to see you again. How's everything?"

"Shut up, ferret" Ron let out a smug smile, probably remembering the day when a supposed professor Moody turned Malfoy into a white ferret.

"Oh, and I suppose if I don't shut up, you'll make me?"

"You bet" came Ron's answer.

Hermione had never seen Ron with such confidence in himself. He wasn't even shaking from holding his wand against Draco Malfoy at an arm's distance. "But… This can't be."

Both boys turned to her, Malfoy still smirking, and Ron still holding his wand with a very firm grasp.

Hermione started shaking with fear. "You…" she turned to Draco "You're dead."

Draco's eyebrows shot up ever so slightly. He pinched himself in the arm and faked pain. "Well, it seems to me I'm very well alive…" He eyed a little stone laying right in front of him "Alive and kicking!" He kicked the stone and it hit Ron too close to his groin for comfort. Taking advantage of his adversary's moment of confusion, he jumped out of sight behind one of the bushes that surrounded them.

Ron, however, didn't move after his opponent. He just stood there, at Hermione's side, his wand lowered. "Come on, Malfoy. Can't you fight like a man? Are you too coward to face me all by yourself?"

"Don't tempt me, Weasley, I might just do that. If I were you I wouldn't want to make me get out of my hiding place to start a duel" came Malfoy's response in mock seriousness.

"Try me."

Silence ensued Ron's challenge. However, after some moments considering his options, Draco Malfoy came back into sight, holding his wand. "You are going to regret this, oh King Weasel."

Ron snorted. "I'd be more careful if I were you."

"You are the one who needs to watch out. You can still run away if you want to. There's no point in me dueling someone who hasn't got the skill to rise up to the challenge… I'd beat you with my eyes closed and my arms tied behind my back."

"We can arrange that if you want."

Hermione watched as the two boys kept dueling each other with words. She wanted to get up and stand between them. She wanted to curse Malfoy. She wanted to run away as fast as she could. She wanted it all to vanish. But destiny, it seemed, had different plans for her. Like a poison, her whole body felt numb, and she couldn't move. All she could do was to watch helplessly as Ron took Malfoy in a duel, and the odds weren't very favorable to her best friend.

"_Rictusempra_!" shouted Ron.

"_Incendio_!" shouted Malfoy.

Both spells went terribly wide from their targets as both boys dived away from them.

Ron got up faster than Malfoy and attacked first. "_Locomotor mortis_!"

Malfoy got down and ducked the spell. He quickly regained his position and before Ron could cast another spell he countered with ferocity. "_Diffindo_!"

Ron was prepared for it and shouted "_Protego_!" before Malfoy's spell could do any harm. He got up and faced him.

Both boys lowered their wands, each one as if daring their opponent to try an attack.

"I must say, Weasel, you have improved on your dueling skills. I might enjoy a little fight with you after all."

"You'll see that I'm full of surprises."

"Too bad it won't be enough. _Reducto_!"

Ron barely escaped this time, the spell missing him by a hair's lenght. However he rolled to the side and, down on one knee, yelled "_Petrificus totalus_!"

Malfoy conjured a protection shiled which engulfed the spell. "Well, it seems I will have to use my special **_technique_** to take you down."

What was once Malfoy started to change and a black cloud engulfed him until it covered him up, making it impossible to see his transformation. However, when it faded, Voldemort himself appeared. The Dark Lord took a few steps in Ron's direction and looked at his body, evaluating the success of his transformation.

Hermione muffled a scream and even Ron, who was acting more confidently than ever, gulped. Indeed, it had been a very successful transformation. Every living creature capable of locomotion within a fifty foot radius ran away, except for the three wizards. A cold wind blew through the leaves, and darkness seemed to turn darker at every passing second. Voldemort seemed to have an aura of power irradiating from him, giving a dark silver light that made him even more terrifying.

The Dark Lord let out a cold laugh. "So, you think you can take me down now?"

"Victory will be mine, no matter what it takes… and who it takes" Ron said through clenched teeth, barely managing to hide his seemingly newfound fear.

"A bold claim, indeed. You are braver than I expected. However, the line that separates bravery from madness is very thin and you, my red haired opponent, have just crossed it." Voldemort raised his hand and Ron's wand came flying to it. He picked it and snapped it in half as if it were merely a twig. "Now, time to say goodbye." He conjured a hurl of wind which knocked Ron down and threw him against a nearby tree.

Hermione tried to grab a stone but still found it impossible to move. She was destined to watch Ron suffer and die at the hands of the most abominable wizard of all times. At least she realized she couldn't move because she had the _Petrificus Totalus_ spell cast on her.

But who could have done it?

"I see you have finally found out what happened" came a voice from behind her, as if reading her mind.

"Malfoy" she spoke.

"Yes… in the flesh" Nicholas Malfoy said, coming into her field of sight.

Hermione saw him picking her head up and making her watch as Voldemort halted to a stop just before Ron's unconscious body, and aimed his wand at it.

And then it all happened, as quickly as thunder. In one moment hope seemed lost, in the next there was a huge battle being fought, with Dumbledore and the members of the Order of the Phoenix battling Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Everyone fell to the ground, dead or severely injured, until there were only two people left fighting: Dumbledore and Voldemort. However, who imagined a big fight between them couldn't have been more disappointed, as Voldemort vanished in a cloud of black smoke, momentarily hiding him and Dumbledore from the world. As soon as the cloud evaporated into thin air, only Dumbledore stood, his wand still aimed at the place where Voldemort had been standing just seconds before.

Hermione felt the spell cast on her diminishing until it ceased to manifest itself in a matter of seconds, and ran as fast as her somewhat numb legs permitted. She approached Dumbledore, who hadn't moved an inch, and looked around. Everyone was already dead. She couldn't care less about the dozens of Death Eaters spread out before her, but it hurt very much to see McGonagall, Ron, Tonks, Lupin, Charlie, Bill, Kingsley Shacklebolt and even Snape laying on the ground, deceased. Several tears flowed freely down her cheeks, and she could only find some kind of solace knowing Dumbledore was still there and that Harry hadn't showed up, which meant that at least he hadn't been killed by the Death Eaters. She grabbed one of Dumbledore's arms and clinged to his robes as if they were her last hope of survival, crying for some minutes before realizing the man hadn't moved yet. She took a few steps back and noticed he was in some kind of trance.

"Professor?" she called, keeping a safe distance just in case.

Dumbledore did not respond. He had literally become a statue.

Hermione started backing slowly, scared that a sudden move could wake a demon inside him. She was almost going to start moving away faster when Dumbledore blinked and moved. Hermione stopped and unconsciously held her breath.

"Hermione" he said.

He was almost surprised to see her, but regained his usual cool pose in a matter of nanoseconds. However, something unusual stroke Hermione. His eyes were no longer blue. They were red, like burning pits of fire. She started backing away again, but this time Dumbledore started chasing her. She turned around and ran away as fast as she could, Dumbledore chasing her close behind.

"Hermione" he called after her, but she chose to ignore it.

The chase ended quickly, though, as Hermione tripped on a tree root that had suddenly shot up. Dumbledore reached her before she could charge away and grabbed her neck with one hand, while the other grasped his wand. Hermione tried to kick him and inflict as much damage to him as she could, but she found it impossible to resist his firm grasp over her neck. Tired from resisting, she took one last look into his fiery red eyes before starting to choke and gasp as life slipped from her in an agonizingly slow way.

This was the end…

"Hermione! Wake up!"

Hermione woke up with a start, only to find out that she had two pairs of eyes watching her with concern.

"We've been trying to wake you up for the last two minutes" said Lavender Brown, who sat at Hermione's bedside.

Hermione sat up straight in bed and looked at Lavender and Parvati, still slightly dizzy from her dream. The girls' dorm had all the windows open, letting a cool autumn breeze in. "Wh-what time is it?"

"Nine o'clock, but it's Sunday so there's no problem" answered Parvati "although, I have to admit, we were starting to get worried about you."

"Why?"

"You're a very light sleeper but today it took us quite a good amount of time to wake you up. You're usually the early bird around here and today it's already nine and you're still in bed. You've been the last days away in the Hospital Wing and we didn't know anything about you. Anything else we might be worried about you?" said Lavender ironically, though she had a smile on her lips.

"Besides, you were doing something very unusual" said Parvati.

Hermione shot her eyebrows up. She had seen Parvati wrestling her sheets and Lavender slapping the air so many times during their sleep she had lost count. What could be so unusual about _her_?

Lavender, as if reading her mind, answered her unverbalized question "You were mumbling incoherent things, squirming like a bug and moving your arms like mad."

"Squirming? Moving my arms like mad?"

"You were almost starting to fly, honey" Parvati stated.

Only then the bushy haired brunette noticed her bed was a total mess. Her pillow wasn't even there, laying silently on Lavender's lap instead.

"Oh, you woke me up with that just a few minutes ago," she said, giving the pillow back to its owner "and that's when I decided we had to wake you up."

"Are you okay? I mean, you came herelast nightand you've slept until now, always making strange noises and gestures. You just couldn't be quiet for five minutes" Parvati looked at Hermione concerned.

Hermione had had her mouth slightly agape during the whole explanation, but had enough presence of mind to close before any of the other girls noticed it. This was new, Parvati and Lavender being the good samaritans to her. It was unusual, but… good. "Uhm… it was just a bad dream. Nothing more to it" She couldn't be more relieved about it. "Just one thing… why all this?"

"All this what?" asked Parvati.

"Don't get me wrong, I kinda like it, but… why all this concern about me all of a sudden? I don't seem to recall you ever being so worried about me before."

Lavender and Parvati exchanged glances and sighed at the same time.

"During the big fight… we saw things we had never even imagined. It was awful." Lavender dropped her somewhat light tone to a deep, shadowy one. "Then you went missing in action. We just knew you were in the Hospital Wing during our first Transfiguration class. We hoped you would get well soon, but almost three weeks passed without you ever coming back. Our dorm became suddenly very empty. We… missed you" she ended with an awkward smile.

Hermione knew it wasn't very easy for Lavender to confess that much sympathy for her, ever the nerdy bookworm at the eyes of her female coleagues. "Well… I kinda missed you too…" she said, half smiling.

That seemed to ease the girls a little.

"So… what happened to you, stranger?" Parvati asked, eager to hear everything. She didn't notice a pink flamingo flying by their window, carrying a pair of trousers on its beak, trying to escape from someone in knickers who chased it on a broom whilescreaming profanities.

Hermione sighed heavily and for the next hour just sat there, telling them the story, careful not to let them know the most important details about Harry and the Order.

It felt good to relax a little bit after everything she had been through, but she knew that sooner or later she would have to worry about Harry.


End file.
